


Mirror Vision

by secooper87



Series: The Child of Balime [54]
Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Doctor Who, Doctor Who & Related Fandoms
Genre: Action/Adventure, Mystery
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-20
Updated: 2015-04-22
Packaged: 2018-03-18 17:53:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 27
Words: 50,232
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3578532
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/secooper87/pseuds/secooper87
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A mystery lies on the planet Draconia. And it's hidden behind the mirror.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

"Another!" cried little Seo, tucked up in bed, hugging Sergeant Ducky to her chest, tightly.

Her Dad surveyed her, carefully. "You'll be asleep before the end of it."

"Nu-uh!" Seo forced her eyes open, wide as they'd go. "I'm not tired at all! You could tell a million billion stories and I wouldn't be tired!"

Dad chuckled.

"All right, then," he said. "Once upon a time, in Sunnydale, there was a Slayer named—"

"Buffy!" Seo cried. "Who fought vampires and evil monsters and—!"

"Oi, who's tellin' this story?" Dad folded his arms. "Anyways. She was out in the cemetery, as usual, when she happened on this alien who was knelt down right smack in the corner, nearest the trees."

Seo's eyes went wide.

"Oh, yeah," Dad continued, outlining the monster with his hands, in the air. "Sort of big and scaly alien, with these itty bitty yellow eyes and feathers coming out of the back of his head. The Glarnov — they're all like that, you know."

"But why's there an alien in the cemetery?" Little Seo asked, hugging Sergeant Ducky a little tighter.

Dad pointed at her. "Ah. That's what Buffy asked, too."

_Buffy leaned to the side, wooden patrolling stake still in hand. "You're not a local boy."_

_The Glarnov looked up from where he'd been fumbling around with some switches on a small, round metal ball. And hissed at her, predatorily._

_"We are the Glarnov, the greatest of the Great Weapon Builders," the Glarnov said. "With this bomb, we will clear the filth from this world and reclaim it as our own. There is nothing you can do to stop us."_

_Buffy gave a little laugh. "Wow, I love villains who just tell me their plans. That saves loads of time."_

_She tossed her stake in the air, caught in, then leapt at the Glarnov, in full ninja-style kick. The Glarnov simply pressed a button on the wrist-watch looking thing he was wearing, and_ —  _if Buffy's Slayer instincts hadn't kicked in_ —  _would have fried Buffy and everything near her to a crisp._

_Buffy fell to the ground like a stone, suddenly unable to get up._

_"Okay," said Buffy. "I'm starting to get the 'great weapon builders' thing."_

"But… but… the Gar-glove alien didn't hurt Buffy, right?" Little Seo asked, in a small voice. "He couldn't have!"

"Course not," said Dad.

 _"It is childishly easy to kill primitive animals like you," said the Glarnov, turning back to his bomb. He kept pushing buttons, and Buffy wondered if maybe he hadn't quite figured out how to correctly set the timer or turn it on or something. "We built weapons that made even the most terrifying monsters tremble with_ — _!"_

_A sound, behind him._

_The Glarnov spun around. "What was…?"_

_"What do you_ think _a Slayer was doing hanging around a cemetery?" Buffy replied. "I wasn't carrying around this stake for_ you _, feather-head."_

_And from behind Buffy, bursting out of the grave, came…_

"A vampire!" Seo squealed. She was nearly bouncing up and down with excitement.

Dad grinned. "You guessed it. Big fangs. Undead. Full deal. Turns out… Buffy had been there waitin' for it, that whole time — the Glarnov was a coincidence."

"And what happened then?" Seo asked.

"Well, the Glarnov tried to disintegrate the vampire using that life-stopping ray he'd used on Buffy," said Dad. He shrugged. "But, too bad for the Glarnov… vampires are already dead. Well… undead."

_Buffy found herself finally able to move, again, as the vampire fed on the Glarnov, blue blood streaked across the vampire's face._

_She got to her feet._

_And, in one leap, staked the vampire in the heart._

"And she knew she'd done the right thing," Dad continued, with a stern look at Seo, "because even though she'd hurt someone — which is usually very bad — she'd done so to save the world and all her friends."

Seo nodded, somberly.

Her eyelids already drooping, now that they'd gotten past the fighting bits of the story, and on to the boring lecture bits.

"Course, Buffy knew that Glarnov had a whole bunch of other mates, hanging around close by," said Dad. "And they'd try to end the world, too. So she picked up the dead Glarnov, tucked the bomb into his pocket, and headed off to find the spaceship."

"As a warning…" Seo muttered, curling up in the covers.

"Sort of, yeah," said Dad. "Found the Glarnov ship, dumped the body, headed off. Course, the Glarnovs didn't know how vampires worked. So when they took the body into their ship and prepared it for a proper funeral…"

_The Glarnov ship erupted into pandemonium, as the dead Glarnov suddenly popped back to life, eyes yellow, face in a snarl, teeth protruding in canine fashion._

_It leapt at the others, who tried their many weapons against it._

_But none worked._

_They began to lift off in their ship, hoping the madness was localized to the Earth and would go away once they'd left, but the vampire Glarnov didn't get better. The ship wavered in the air, then crashed back down to Earth, in the middle of the Pacific Ocean._

"And that was the end of the Glarnov," said Dad.

Seo nodded, her eyes now shut. Blond hair spilling across her pillow.

"And then Buffy went home," said Dad, creeping over to her and corporealizing — just for a minute. "To all the friends and family she'd saved. And she knew she'd done the right thing, because she'd saved the people she loved from a terrible evil. Just like she always did."

Seo's breathing evened out, slow and steady, as she drifted into sleep.

Dreaming of the hero she loved.

Buffy.

Dad brushed her hair aside, tucked her in, and pressed a small kiss to her forehead.

"Just like she did for you, little Seo," Dad whispered. "Just like she always will. Because she loves you and believes in you — no matter what."

* * *

**_90 years later._ **

* * *

The time machine known as Oliver gave a childlike whine as it appeared, out of thin air, on a steep hillside above a bustling city.

Two figures walked out.

The second — a handsome looking human with a World War II military greatcoat — stopped just outside the doors. Surveying the landscape.

"Draconia," Jack Harkness announced. "Think you missed on that Placaran Booze Up by about 7 million light years." He squinted at the city. "And a few millennia, judging by the technology here. 29th century?"

Seo didn't answer.

She had sat down on a boulder, staring out at the city below. Saying nothing.

"Wanna get back in and give it another go?" Jack asked, heading towards her. Gave a little shrug. "Or maybe stay here, and see what kind of trouble you can get yourself into, as per usual?"

He rounded the edge of the boulder.

And realized Seo was staring out at the city below, her lower lip shaking, as she tried, desperately, not to cry.

"Hey," said Jack, sitting down beside her. "What's wrong, kid?"

She turned away from him. "I can't."

"Can't…?"

"It's not so bad, when I keep myself busy," Seo said, keeping her voice very low, so it wouldn't shake. "Fighting off monsters, stopping injustice. I can pretend things are normal. The pain becomes bearable. But… in between… when I'm in the vortex, and there's nothing to distract me… and I think about… Mom and… and…"

Jack put a hand on her shoulder.

And she glanced back at him, just a little.

"I can't stand this," Seo whispered.

Jack met her eyes. Those deep, brown eyes, so full of pain and loss.

"Yeah," said Jack. "I understand."

Seo glared at him.

Squirmed out of his grasp, and jumped back to her feet. "Understand?!" Her whole body shook with something between rage and desperate sobbing. "No, you don't understand. You don't have  _any_ idea."

"Seo…"

"Just because Ianto died, you think you know how I feel?!" Seo shook her head. "Mom was family. You didn't lose family. You didn't lose the closest, most important, most vital part of your life."

Jack went silent.

"I thought this gnawing sorrow would go away," Seo said. "But it didn't. I lost Mom, I lost Aunt Dawn, then I lost  _everything_ , and…"

Her voice cracked.

"Father said it'd never feel the same, despite what I did," Seo whispered. "Maybe he was right."

Jack said nothing.

"Mom came back from the dead, before," Seo said, softly. "She was the same. But… Mom's… not coming back this time." The wind brushed through her hair. "I'm… alone. No Aunt Dawn. No Mom. Just… a soul, one last little spark, and a mangled Cyberplanner for company."

"Seo…" Jack said, trying to put his arm around her.

Seo glanced up at him.

Then, with a glare, shoved him away from her.

"So don't you dare say that you understand," Seo said, turning from him and marching down the hill. "Because until you've lived through what I have… you can't possibly know what I'm going through."

Jack waited a minute before chasing after her.

They didn't talk for a long while, after that.


	2. Chapter 2

Wandering through a marketplace, surrounded by Draconians on all sides — and a surprising number of aliens — Seo paused by a mirror.

Staring into its surface, as if something… were wrong.

"The conference is in the Imperial Gardens —  _this_  way," said an older-looking human with a patched-up jacket and clothes just a little out of date. He pointed, approaching Seo and Jack with a kind smile. "Easy to get lost here, I know. I had three graduate students nearly vanish on me the first day we arrived."

Seo spun around, abandoning the mirror. Instead peering at the older man and the young students trailing behind him.

"Senior tutor?" Seo frowned, then shook her head. "No, wait. American accent. So you'll be a Professor from some American University, with graduate students."

"Professor Herbert Claude, of New Harvard," the professor agreed. He shook Seo's hand. "Delighted to meet such a young scientific enthusiast. Not many undergraduates would make the trip all the way to Draconia for a conference like this."

Seo quirked an eyebrow at the word 'undergraduate'. "But I'm not—"

"Oh, yeah, the conference!" Jack cut in, before Seo could blow their cover. He put a hand on her shoulder, gently, as a warning. "We wouldn't miss it for the world." He paused. Then, a little quieter, "Gotta admit, though, wasn't expecting so many aliens. Not on Draconia."

"Nor were any of us," Professor Claude agreed. "But these are unusual times." He leaned in, conspiratorially. "To tell you the truth, I think they're a little desperate. Especially after that business on Wiolpo."

Jack and Seo exchanged a look.

And there it was, blooming in Seo's eyes, yet again. That fervent curiosity.

Whatever else had changed about her since the Cyberwars, it appeared she was just as curious as ever.

"But if you think  _this_  is strange, just wait until you get to the conference!" said Professor Claude. "You know the traditional role of women in science on Draconia?"

"I know there isn't one," said Jack.

Professor Claude laughed, as he led the way. "Wasn't!"

* * *

Jack stopped, the second he saw the conference.

Just stared.

"No," said Jack. Shook his head. "Not possible."

Professor Claude chuckled.

Seo tugged on the sleeve of Jack's coat, as they continued to follow Professor Claude and his graduate students.

Coughed, pointedly.

Demanding answers.

"Draconia," Jack explained to her, "is a very old civilization, with lots of ancient traditions dating back centuries. Very advanced. Culturally proud. And famous for two things." He held up a finger. "First — they don't like aliens. Not one bit."

Seo looked around them, at all the alien races at the conference.

"Looks like that's changed," she muttered.

"And, second," Jack went on, holding up another finger, "they aren't big on women."

Seo snapped her head around. "I'm sorry?"

"Oh, yeah, their sexism is legendary," said Jack, with a shrug. "I was on this planet they occupied, a while back. All the women needed an armed escort, at all times. Not allowed education or a job or any place in society. Draconians basically just thought of them as baby-machines, and that's it." He gave a small smile. "Met this great redhead, though, along with her twin—"

"No education?!" Seo cut in, before Jack could go on with his story. She stared around herself, at all the Draconians surrounding them, mixed in with the aliens. "Half the Draconian students here are women!"

"I know," said Jack. "Weird, huh?"

One of Professor Claude's graduate students gave a small huff. "Not  _that_ weird." She turned to them, offering her hand. "Ilene Lower. And it's about time they let women learn. Even if they needed their society to nearly collapse before they could figure that out."

Jack and Seo both shook the hand, introducing themselves.

"Nearly collapse?" Jack asked. "Haven't heard of that."

Ilene stared at them. "Seriously? Wiolpo? The economic crash three years ago? The stories that got leaked in the Daily Hezerogad Elink?"

"We've been working on an… experiment in isolation," Seo put in, hurriedly. "You know how fiddly neutrinos can be."

Ilene broke out into a wide grin. "Neutrinos? Love them! Do you comply with the Meywi Theory, or are you…?"

"Still open-minded," Seo said, carefully attempting to cover up the fact that she had no idea what the Meywi Theory was. "But… Draconia…?"

"Oh, that." Ilene sighed, clearly less enthused about discussing Draconia than science. "Just a bunch of dragons too steeped in superstition and ancient, obsolete traditions to be able to maintain their position as the leader of an empire." She took Seo by the arm, and began to lead her off. "Now, about those neutrinos…"

Jack looked after them, trying to decide if he should follow or just let Seo go off and do her thing. After all, given Seo's curiosity and interests, perhaps a scientific conference was exactly what she needed.

A way to… find herself, again.

After what had happened.

Professor Claude pulled Jack away from them. "Registration is just in there," he explained, pointing to a tent on the far end of the lawn.

"Registration…" Jack muttered. Realizing he might have a problem.

Professor Claude noticed. "University in the Outer Colonies?" He smiled, ushering Jack into the tent. "Not to worry. There are a number of you here. We Old Earth Universities have an… arrangement, to let you in."

Which was how Jack wound up being registered as a Junior Professor of Spacial Engineering at New Harvard. How he got the name badge, declaring him as such.

And, shortly thereafter, how he wound up flirting with the Honorable Professor Flascarf, who'd been eager to impress, and getting on the guy's good side.

"I must introduce you to some of my other colleagues," said the Honorable Professor Flascarf, after Jack had finished telling him a story of one of his exploits with Torchwood, that had saved the world and wound up with Jack in bed with about three different women, one of whom was a shape-shifting alien. "Your field research is… interesting, to say the least."

Hey.

Looked like not all Draconians were that aloof and arrogant.

Maybe, all in all, this conference wouldn't be such a bad thing for him, either.

* * *

"…studying the theory of light in relative dimensional fields," Ilene was saying. "In fact, we've just gotten the funding to create a null chamber and actually test Felink's Theory—"

Ilene paused, as she noticed Seo had stopped beside a solid glass building. Staring at one of the reflective panels.

"Is… everything…?" Ilene asked.

Seo blinked. Squinted at the panel. "I thought I saw something…"

"Probably just your own reflection," said Ilene. She squinted at the glass panel, and shrugged. "Looks like a fairly regular composition, if you ask me. Now, back at New Harvard, there's a team experimenting with highly reflective graphene panels, to study the delta effect of—"

"Actually," said a sibilant voice, "it's a super-structured compound of double-bonded draconium."

Ilene and Seo turned.

To discover a young Draconian woman behind them, her stature straight and tall, her head held high. She bowed to them, as she approached.

"Forgive the interruption, off-worlders," said the Draconian. "I wanted to extend a welcome. May you live a long life and may energy shine on you from a million suns and may water, oxygen and plutonium be found in abundance wherever you land. And I can tell you more about the composition, if you will forgive the lesser sex for offering—"

"Who are you calling the lesser sex?" Ilene said. She strode over, flipping long hair back over her shoulder. "Ilene Lower. New Harvard. And don't ask for forgiveness — we're all women, here."

The Draconian woman seemed mildly irritated at Ilene's words, but gave a faint sigh — as if to say,  _what would you expect of off-worlders who don't know their place?_ — and masked her feelings beneath a calm and austere exterior.

Seo didn't introduce herself. Instead, examined the Draconian.

The Draconian woman was smaller than the other Draconians Seo had seen, but still with the usual dust-brown Draconian skin and bumps along the back of her bald head. Her lashes were a little longer, her face a little more rounded, and she wore ornate garments clearly not designed for running…

Or breathing, for that matter…

"The Lady Arasine," said the Draconian woman. "Of the Seventh Court of the House of Cartishe." She gave another bow. "Forgive my apology, if it offended. Women on this planet are expected to—"

"Yeah, I know what's  _expected_ ," Ilene cut in. Her whole body was tense, like she was gearing up for a fight. "But it's backwards, stupid, and wrong. On  _my_  planet, women don't need to ask forgiveness to learn things!" She huffed. "Maybe you guys should take a page out of our book."

Seo held in a snicker.

She could just see Ilene getting more and more wound up with every word Arasine said. And Arasine's calm exterior only barely concealed her mounting offense at Ilene's words.

Oh, this was going to be good!

If she could just fan the flames a little…

"So — this substance, Arasine," Seo said, tapping on the sleek glassy-looking panel of the building. "You seem to know about it. Did you design it?"

Sure enough.

From the look on Arasine's face, Seo might as well have asked if she shoveled manure for a living. "No!"

Ilene frowned. "That was pretty emphatic for a 'no'."

Arasine bowed, yet again. "Forgive me, Earthwomen," she said. "You do not know our customs. But as a member of the inferior sex, I would appreciate it if you never asked me this, again."

"Ask if you  _made_  something?" Ilene clarified.

"To imply that one of my inferior sex," said Arasine, "would ever dare to set foot in a laboratory, or conduct an experiment, or create a new theory or substance… it's the highest disrespect."

"What?!" Ilene cried, furious.

"A member of the inferior sex must never question the theories put forwards by a Draconian male," Arasine replied, dryly. It sounded to Seo like she was just echoing back what she was supposed to say, without actually absorbing the words. "To come up with a new theory — and test it in a lab — would imply that I knew better than the men who created these theories in the first place."

Ilene's jaw dropped. "Call yourself a scientist?" she shouted. "Never questioning! Never theorizing! Never testing anything out! You're not a scientist — you're a historian!"

"Members of the inferior sex don't have the capacity to do proper science," Arasine replied. "It has been scientifically proven."

"With one of those theories you're not allowed to question," Ilene retorted. Threw up her arms. "And you wonder why we Earthers consider you dragons so backwards!"

"Dragon?" Arasine spat. Like the name was a bad taste in her mouth. "You dare call  _me_  such a name? Be warned — Draconia's blood is my blood, her children my children, her honor my honor. Your insult is a slur against myself and my empire!"

"Oh, yeah?" Ilene seemed almost proud. "Dragon, dragon, dragon! There! How's that for tough cookies?"

Arasine's lower jaw shook with barely suppressed fury.

"I suppose I should have expected no better," Arasine said, evenly, "from a race evolved from a bunch smelly, flea-infested primates. It's any wonder you managed to climb down from the trees in the first place."

A sudden hollow feeling spread through Seo. "Now… wait a second…"

Ilene stepped forwards. "Oh, you are so looking for a smack, lady," she snapped.

"You Earthmen think yourselves so righteous — forcing your beliefs on every race you encounter, throughout the cosmos!" said Arasine. "A set of beliefs that ignores your own origins, and repeats mistakes of the past. But, no — if it's the Earth way, it must be the 'right' way. Despite the hypocrisy and lies that your small primate brains consider…"

Ilene swung back her fist to sock the Draconian in the jaw.

But Seo caught it.

Held her back.

"No," Seo said. Trying to clear her muddled thoughts. "No, this isn't what I wanted!"

Ilene and Arasine both stared at Seo. Not sure what the hell she was talking about.

Seo hesitated.

Not completely sure, herself. She'd thought… she'd wanted to have fun, just waiting on the sidelines and laughing as these two lesser beings tore each other apart.

But seeing it all happen, in front of her…

"This is wrong," Seo decided. She stepped in between Ilene and Arasine, separating them. "You're both scientists. Both working to the same end! I can't… just… stand by and let you tear each other to shreds."

If she'd still been herself — her real self, her nice self — she'd have known that from the beginning.

What was wrong with her?

"Look around us — Draconia's obviously a society in the middle of a huge change," said Seo, gesturing at the planet. "Women in science! Noblewomen seeking out alien visitors and trying to make them feel welcome! That's never happened, here, before." She spun on Ilene. "Arasine's part of that change. Are you really going to berate her for it?"

Ilene grumbled.

Conceding the point, but not quite ready to concede the fight.

"She's still an apologist for the male chauvinists on this planet," Ilene said. "Not questioning. Not experimenting. Not—"

"Not knowing what to do," Seo corrected, "or how to balance the traditions and culture she holds so dear with these new changes." She met Ilene's eyes with her own. "Can you imagine that? Being torn between old and new? Not knowing what you want or how to feel, now that everything you knew has been ripped away and replaced? Part of you still wants to sit on the sidelines and watch, like you've been taught — the traditional Draconian woman, with no ambition beyond marriage and children. But then you see the squabble and chaos unfolding around you… and you realize — no. That's not what I wanted. I've got to step in. I've got to make this better."

Ilene stepped back, a little.

"Arasine  _is_  helping," Seo continued. "Sure, she's confused — who wouldn't be? But she's still learning, despite everything her society's believed." She grinned. "And if just  _one_  person is converted and upgraded, then it's only a matter of time before the whole world is silver and gleaming, purged of weakness and converted into mighty—"

She caught herself.

Gave a sheepish smile.

"—Draconians," she stuck in, hurriedly. "Very mighty Draconians."

"And who are you to say such things?" came Arasine's calm, quiet voice. Funny thing was — it wasn't said in anger. Not cold or detached like everything else. Just… intensely curious. "Who are you to know such things?"

"Not a Cyberman!" Seo said, as she spun around to face Arasine. "I'm…" She hesitated. "I'm Seo. Just… Seo."

Arasine regarded Seo with keen, sharp eyes.

Saying nothing.

"Not a Cyberman?" Ilene interjected. "What's that supposed to mean?"

Seo felt her face flush. Didn't know how to answer.

Arasine saved her — by giving Ilene a bow of respect. "The Earth-female is wise in her council. Forgive me for my words Ms. Lower."

"Wise?" said Ilene. "I, personally, think she's nuts." Then sighed, and extended a hand in friendship. "But… Cybermen aside… I take her point. And I guess… I'm sorry about what I said, too."

Arasine looked at Ilene's hand, not sure what to do. Then, tentatively, took it.

Ilene shook the hand, with a smile.

"And good for you," Ilene concluded, "for learning stuff, despite everything society throws at you. I'd… like to hear more, if you have time. Or…"

They were interrupted, as someone from Ilene's research group shouted for her.

And Ilene swore.

"I've got to go," Ilene said, heading off. "Later, though. Okay?" She gave a wary glance at Seo. "Without this… whoever-she-is… butting in."

The shout for Ilene came again.

And Ilene sighed, turning and sprinting away. "Yeah, yeah! I'm coming!"

Seo smiled, as she looked after Ilene. She felt… like she had before the Cyberplanner or the Cyberwars. Felt a kind of warm, fuzzy inner glow, along with a happy pride that she'd managed to straighten everything out and make everyone friends, again.

This was a good feeling. A normal feeling. A feeling of being herself, again.

She wanted more of this.

"I fear that Earthwoman speaks for many of her race," said Arasine, her voice quiet — but her words careful. "But not you."

Seo turned back.

"You're not from Earth, are you?" Arasine guessed.

Seo quirked an eyebrow. "That a theory?" she asked. "Questioning a societal norm? I thought women weren't allowed to do that, here."

Arasine froze.

Words failing her.

"Your secret's safe with me," Seo assured her. Shrugged. "And, for what it's worth, I  _am_  from Earth. American. Born in California — if you know it."

Arasine's panic subsided beneath growing curiosity.

"I've… been traveling a bit, since then," Seo admitted. Looking away from Arasine, fidgeting with her sleeve. "Saved some planets. Helped some people. Tried to blow up the universe. You know, normal stuff."

"They say… Draconia is a world that's proud of its past," said Arasine, "but — with so much missing — no longer knows its own identity." Arasine studied Seo, carefully. "And who could understand how that feels… unless she has lived it herself?"

Like Seo had said to Jack.

But she wasn't going to dwell on that. Not right now.

"So much missing?" Seo said. Examining Arasine closely. "What do you mean, 'so much missing'?"

Arasine hesitated, confused. "I… don't know." Pondered it a little more, then. "I misspoke. An accident."

"More like a Freudian slip," Seo muttered. Eyes flicking back to the glassy-looking substance that composed the building she'd been examining earlier. "Yes. There's something very wrong, here."

"We are missing nothing," said Arasine, a little coldly. "I was mistaken. A Draconian never forgets the past."

Seo nodded.

Thinking this all through, carefully.

Then took Arasine by the arm, and started walking off. "How about you tell me a little of what you've been learning?" she asked. Peered around herself, then added, in a whisper, "And  _your_  thoughts on it all."


	3. Chapter 3

A little flirting can get you a long way.

Even, apparently, on Draconia.

That was basically Jack's thought, as he found himself surrounded by the highest echelons of Draconian society. Some were Lord Professors, others were simply Draconian Noblemen who were attending the conference to show the support of Draconia towards the sciences.

Apparently, Jack's story about saving the Earth was enough to convince these guys that he was some high-up official in the Earth Empire, here undercover to assess the alliance between Draconia and Earth.

Considering Jack wasn't supposed to be here, he wasn't about to argue.

"We are not all as backwards as you Earthmen think, Professor Harkness," said Lord Nyin, his long, thin beard emphasizing a great set of cheekbones. "Despite recent events on Wiolpo and in the Lithusilan Cluster, we are not a race of superstitious traditionalists who are prone to absurd cults."

Aha.

So that was why the Draconians were suddenly so eager to impress a group of aliens.

"Yeah, some cults, huh?" Jack grinned. "I met this one woman from Kalinda Prime. Wouldn't stop talking about how the Great Essence would swallow up the universe unless we all moved to some commune and gave a guy our life savings." He grabbed a cocktail from a Draconian servant, who bowed and offered Jack a traditional mutterance of thanks, before departing. "Weird woman. Great ass."

The Draconian nobles all looked at one another, not sure how to take this.

"Don't do jokes or witty anecdotes," Jack muttered, scrambling through his brain for what he remembered about Draconians. "Right." He took a sip of his cocktail, then gestured at the large, elaborate wall to their right. "So this conference. Unusual location. Right next to the Imperial Palace?"

"The Emperor himself wished to gaze upon the spectacle," said the Honorable Flascarf. "Although, of course, his majesty is, himself, above associating with…"

He trailed off.

Realizing he should not say such things to an off-worlder.

"…with us lowly aliens, huh?" Jack shrugged. "Should have figured."

"Not  _just_ the aliens," Lord Nyin muttered. Glaring at a group of Draconian women, heading towards one of the lecture halls — ready and eager to learn.

"Yeah, I meant to ask about that," said Jack. "What's up with the women?"

The two Draconians paused for a long time.

Before answering… very carefully.

"In light of recent events," said Lord Nyin, "it has been decided that… basic education in Draconian females may alleviate some of the superstitions found in their children."

"It is a folly of the lesser sex that they invent stories to explain what they do not understand," the Honorable Flascarf added. "It is believed that they teach these stories to their children, thus creating our current trouble."

Jack looked down into his glass.

Thought about Rose Tyler, Martha Jones, about Gwen and Tosh and Buffy and all the other women he'd known who'd managed to save the world when no one else could.

"Don't underestimate women," Jack told the two Draconians. "You never know. One day, one might make you immortal."

* * *

"…which is actually a highly complex algorithm," Arasine was explaining, "to calculate the exact frequency at which we can no longer see the item in question. Or so says the Honorable Professor Bcanthar. It's how our photon shields work."

Seo kept pace with her.

Nodding, as she absorbed everything that Arasine told her.

"But that's only  _one_ of the implications you can derive from observing light on a photon-by-photon basis," Arasine continued. She dropped her voice a little, as if divulging a great secret. "If you assume that the entire concept of wave-particle duality is fundamentally flawed, and that photons follow their own separate rules, as influenced by subatomic factors, then you can…"

Seo stumbled, nearly falling on her face.

Arasine caught her. "Are you…?"

Seo glanced back behind her, at the small pool they'd just passed.

Then raced back towards it. Knelt down by the side, to stare at the top of the clear water. The reflection of the sky and the clouds. And of Arasine, coming up behind her.

"The reflecting pool of the Emperor's Outer Gardens," said Arasine. "Very beautiful. It's said that the poet Yaeschel sat here when he composed many of his great works."

Seo leaned down, a little closer.

Her nose almost touching the surface of the water.

"It's funny," Seo said. "But ever since arriving on this planet, whenever I pass a mirror… it's as if… there's a reflection."

Her nose accidentally poked the surface of the water, which rippled beneath her.

Like normal water.

"As if  _I_  have a reflection," Seo muttered, pulling away.

Arasine wasn't quite sure how to react to this. Looked between the reflective surface of the pool, and Seo herself. "But… you  _do_ have a reflection," said Arasine. She thought a moment. "Ah, this must be one of your human… 'jokes', I believe you call them."

Seo looked into the water, again.

Couldn't see her own reflection.

As usual.

"Maybe." Seo stood up, then turned to face Arasine. "So… you like studying light, then?"

"Yes," said Arasine, her eyes glowing as she spoke. "Me and my… friends." She tensed a little, at the word 'friends'.

"Something wrong with your friends?" asked Seo.

"I am the only noblewoman of Draconia who chose to take up studies," Arasine admitted. "My friends… are commoners. My family would be ashamed."

Seo shrugged.

"Maybe it's the American in me coming out — but nobility's over-rated," Seo said. "Father can run around the universe thinking he's high-and-mighty because he's a lord. But Mom wasn't noble, and she was just as…"

Seo stopped herself.

Swallowed.

"You are of noble blood, then?" Arasine asked. Eyeing her up and down, curiously.

Seo decided she was done with this line of conversation.

"There's a lecture about light, today, isn't there?" Seo asked, instead. Pulling out her brochure. "Coming up soon."

Arasine nodded. "Professor Quinimol, from Earth," she said, from memory. "Discussing how different frequencies of spectral light act as filtered through different kinds of quantum wormholes. The great Draconian scientist Plikarol once did something similar, but never on this scale."

Seo brushed some hair behind her shoulder. Thinking it over, as she tucked away her brochure. "Interesting."

Arasine bowed. "I would be honored if you chose to join me at the lecture, Lady Seo."

"Just Seo," Seo put in, quickly. She tucked away the brochure, then turned back to Arasine. "So — there's been actual research on quantum wormholes and such on Draconia. Actual quantum mathematics?"

"Well, of course," said Arasine. "Everyone knows that. In fact, the latest modification to the theory was created by…"

Arasine paused.

Confused.

Then shrugged her confusion away.

"…not that it matters," Arasine said. "But it's revolutionized the way we think about small-scale physics. And has proved highly inspirational. In fact, it was only after toying around with the mathematics of his great experiment that I found—"

Arasine stopped herself.

As if she'd just said something she shouldn't have.

"Nothing," Arasine corrected herself. "I found… nothing."

Interesting.

This wasn't confusion, like before. No,  _this_  was Arasine hiding something. A deep, dark secret — one that broke more Draconian rules than all the others.

Keeping her cards close to her chest.

"You found out something," Seo said. Then, guessing, "Something about the gaps?"

"What gaps?"

"The gaps in your history!" said Seo. She gestured around herself. "It's why Draconian society is falling apart! Why you've gotten desperate and let women learn things. Draconia's soul is still there but something basic's been… stripped away! Leaving you confused and desperate."

Arasine looked at Seo, pity in her eyes. "I think there is someone confused and desperate, who has lost all sense of self. But it is not Draconia."

Seo grabbed Arasine up by the arm, twisting her around so she could get the perfect angle to punch her in the teeth.

But stopped herself.

Damn it! What was she doing? Seo knew she couldn't just go around killing people whenever she got frustrated!

If Mom were still around… she'd be horrified.

Seo lowered her fist and — instead — just met Arasine's eyes. "This has nothing to do with  _me_ ," she said. "This is about  _you_. Your whole world! Your history reads like a textbook with half the pages missing — can't you see it?"

"I have no idea what you're talking about."

Seo suppressed another wave of fury and frustration.

"You Draconians have quantum physics," Seo explained, calmly as she could. "You have the ability to use its mathematics to create wormholes and build super-structures based on an intimate knowledge of electrons. But when I outlined the fundamental principles of Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle, you'd never heard them. You had no idea what I was talking about."

A flash of unease spread through Arasine's face, but she dismissed it. "Earth concepts aren't…"

"That glass building, back there, where we first met!" Seo interrupted, beyond frustrated, now. She pointed behind her. "It was obviously crafted using the art of sub-light delta refraction welding. But you — with all your research into light — have never even heard of that process!"

"It's not my place to question what I have and haven't been taught," Arasine replied. "If my superiors felt that I, a mere female, didn't have the capacity to learn—"

Seo bunched her hands into fists, again. "This has nothing to do with sexism!" she snapped. Shaking Arasine, furiously. "Arasine, the reason Draconia is falling into disarray is because you're losing your past. The Draconian Empire is like a… gigantic game of Jenga, and it's only a matter of time before the whole thing falls down in ruin!"

"No!" Arasine said. "This is nonsense! A lie."

"You  _know_  it's true," Seo urged her. "I can see! You've felt it."

"I've felt  _nothing_ ," Arasine snapped. "Because Draconia has lost  _nothing_. The culture and traditions of Draconian are long and proud. Unlike humans —  _we do not forget_."

She turned, extracting herself from Seo's grip.

"Now, if you don't mind," Arasine said, in a loud but firm voice, "I have a lecture to attend."

Seo surged after her, grabbing her up with a punishing grip and spinning her around, again. "You stupid little…!"

Arasine cried out, her face crinkled with the pain as Seo's fingers dug into her skin.

Seo stopped.

Let go of Arasine, at once. Stumbling back, a little bewildered.

"Sorry," Seo said, with a cringe. "Just… sorry." Took another step back. "Do what you want. I'll… just… be going."

Arasine gave a huff, and departed.

Seo closed her eyes.

Turned round, hands on her head. Took deep breathes, desperately trying to control her temper. No. No, this couldn't be her! She wouldn't let it be her!

Hurting people.

Trying to pick fights.

Blowing up the universe.

"I'm calm," Seo told herself. "I'm not frustrated. Not angry! I'm perfectly calm. I'm..."

She managed a glance back at the departing Arasine.

And all her anger flared up, again.

"Stupid, thick people!" Seo screamed, kicking her foot through a tree trunk. The wood splintered around her, and she had to duck to avoid the shards. "Stupid, ignorant, half-wit morons! Not accepting the truth. Oh, sure, pretend everything's fine! Pretend all those gaps and empty spaces are filled just because you've reached for the nearest thing at hand, and can't come to terms with the loss… of… of...!"

She choked on a sob.

And only then realized she was crying.

Couldn't stop.

"I don't want to do this, anymore," Seo said.

She withdrew her foot from the tree trunk. The sole of her shoe was almost worn through from the impact, littered with splinters — and her foot throbbed.

"I don't want to do this anymore!" Seo repeated, through her tears. "I should have just blown up the universe when I had a chance! Anything so I didn't have to feel…!"

She remembered her father. Big, sympathetic green eyes looking into hers — like he was looking into her soul.

_Embrace those emotions — they're what make you feel alive._

And she remembered Mom, alive and hugging her. Like Seo was the most important person in the whole universe to her.

Seo closed her eyes, took long, deep breaths. "No. I… can do this," she told herself. "I  _have_  to. Carry on Mom's legacy — just like I said I'd do, before the Cybermen. I'll… just… follow Arasine… make some new friends… solve the mystery… save the world…"

She took another shaky breath.

And wiped the tears from her eyes. Standing up straight and tall.

"I will do this," Seo resolved. Striking out after Arasine. "Doesn't matter if Arasine and the others won't listen, or what they say." She brushed some hair behind her shoulders. "Does a Cyberman stop cyberconverting a planet just because a few people start screaming in agony? Does he get angry and decide to blow up the universe to make the screaming stop? No!" Set her jaw. "If I've set out to save the people of Draconia, then I will.  _That_  is logical."

She struck out for the lecture hall.


	4. Chapter 4

"These are our private quarters for the professors," Lord Nyin told Jack, opening up a door to a one-way glass building, to reveal a large and luxurious open hall, with massage chairs and food and cocktails. Fountains and sculptures of ancient and proud Draconians surrounded them — ones that looked quite old and, Jack thought, quite valuable.

"Gotta love you Draconians," said Jack. "Lots of old statues, and you put them in a sub-light delta refraction structure like this." He knocked against the walls. "Ancient traditions and modern technology. Neat mix."

The Honorable Flascarf looked at Jack, blankly.

"Sub-light… yes, well," the Honorable Flascarf coughed, then gestured at Jack to move inside. "We do want you to enjoy this conference, free from the constant interruptions of some of our less… cultured students."

By which, Jack figured, they meant women.

"You're just buttering up all us foreigners so we'll go home and tell Earth you're okay guys, huh?" Jack guessed. He stretched out, then headed over to a massage chair. "Well, I wouldn't say no, if you're…"

He paused.

Then turned back to his tour guides.

"You know, this is a  _lot_  of food for the number of professors you've actually got at this thing," Jack pointed out.

"There are over 100 visiting professors, and over 250 local ones, currently in attendance," said Lord Nyin. "It is why the conference is scheduled to last for two weeks, and consumes the entirety of the outer Imperial Gardens."

Jack shot them both a look. "In attendance? Right now?  _Today_?"

"Today… there are only 40 visiting professors, and 105 local ones in attendance," the Honorable Flascarf acknowledged. "The others are arriving later in the conference."

"A hundred and forty five professors?" Jack cried. "And… total student attendance? What's that like, today?"

"At last count, 500," said Lord Nyin.

"Five…?!" Jack shook his head. Pointed outside. "Have you looked? There's no way there are five hundred people out there."

"Many are in lectures, I believe," said the Honorable Flascarf. "Or relaxing in chambers such as this, awaiting—"

"I've seen five hundred people, before," Jack interrupted. "Second moon of Orip, small place called Cavalo's — that's an orgy I'm not likely to forget." He glanced around himself. "Trust me, five hundred people doesn't ever look like this."

Lord Nyin gave Jack a dark and disapproving stare. But soon resumed his previous detached politeness, and informed Jack that, "If you have the patience, Professor, I will check."

Then turned away, and headed over to a computer panel embedded into the wall.

A few minutes later, he was back.

"The Earthman is, indeed, correct," Lord Nyin said, although he didn't look to happy to be admitting Jack had known something a Draconian hadn't. "The number is two hundred and fifty. There is… no record of the conference ever having five hundred attendees." He bowed. "A trick of memory, perhaps."

Jack thought about it.

Looking off into the distance.

"Yeah," he said, in a quiet voice. "Memory."

* * *

"…at which point, the y-squares cancel out," Professor Quinimol explained, drawing a huge slash through the equation, and then scribbling another one below it. "And you're left with just… this." He finished writing, then tapped the equation, as he returned to the class. "The variation pattern for low-spectrum light through a rotating quantum wormhole."

Seo glanced at Arasine and her friends, sitting several rows away from her.

They were all looking on at the lecture with rapt interest. Recording notes as they went — clearly trying to really think through and understand the material presented.

"Now, after I discovered this," said Professor Quinimol, "I spent many years studying the implications of this equation. But at the moment…" He circled the bottom of the equation, and drew some arrows pointing to it, " _this_ is where my research has primarily been focused."

Something seemed to light up in Arasine's eyes, as she silently mouthed the words that figured out the complex implications the Professor was outlining.

"Given the inverse nature of the k-x relationship," Professor Quinimol said, tapping the letters in his equation, "you can see precisely where our modern Photon Drives are coming up short. And why they produce that—"

The Professor trailed off, as the entire auditorium of students stood up, simultaneously.

Facing the door.

Professor Quinimol squinted through his glasses. And Seo climbed up onto a chair to see over the heads of the tall Draconians around her, to figure out what everyone was reacting to.

"Ah, Lord… Mazenku," said Professor Quinimol. He hastily realized he was supposed to bow, and did so — a little awkwardly. "It's… an honor to see you taking an interest in my lecture."

"Continue, Professor," said the sibilant Draconian tones of the noble. "I wish only to observe."

All the off-worlders and the Draconian men sat down.

Arasine, her friends, and all the other Draconian women, however, suddenly began to grab their things and head out the door — none making eye contact with the Draconian noble who was dressed so much more finely than the others, and who carried two swords with him at all times.

Seo didn't sit down, either. Just stepped off the chair and stared at Lord Mazenku.

Trying to figure out what was going on.

He caught her eyes with his. Shot her a harsh glare, his face twisting in revulsion — as if her mere presence made his skin crawl.

Seo was vaguely comforted by the fact that she could beat him to a bloody pulp any time she wanted.

Her eyes flicked over to Arasine and the others, who were all pouring out the door to the lecture hall. And decided this Lord Mazenku — whoever he was — could go hang.

She needed answers.

And Arasine had them.

"Well, I… was told to expect this," Professor Quinimol said, as half the students left the lecture. "But… you can always stay, if you want!"

They didn't stay.

And neither did Seo.

"Or… not," she heard Professor Quinimol say, as she left. "Yes… um… as I was saying…"

The sounds of the lecture were drowned out as the door to the lecture hall swung shut behind Seo. Stumbling after Arasine and the others, into the bright sunlight outside.

She found them all loitering about, just outside the doors.

"What was that about?!" Seo cried, approaching the group. "You all seemed really interested in that lecture. And then you just… left!"

Arasine and the others turned, vaguely surprised to see her. Apparently, they'd been too wrapped up in the lecture to notice she'd come in after them.

"You chose to join us, after all," said Arasine. "I… am surprised. When you turned away, I assumed you had departed Draconia."

"Are you implying I like to run away from or blow up my problems?" Seo demanded. "Seems a bit rich, coming from someone who just left a lecture she was interested in!"

"My honorable lady," said one of Arasine's friends. "Who is this?"

Arasine tilted her head, examining Seo, carefully. "I don't know, Tileka," she admitted. "She says she is from Earth and calls herself 'Seo'. But there is something… wrong with her."

"Wrong with  _me_?" Seo snapped. "There's nothing wrong with  _me_! What about all of you? Running away!"

Arasine met Seo's eyes, evenly.

"It's tradition," said Tileka. "We of the lesser sex are permitted to learn. But we may not do so in the presence of one of the Draconian Imperial Family."

Seo glanced back at the closed doors to the lecture hall.

He was  _royalty_?!

"If Lord Mazenku has developed an interest in the study of light," said Arasine's other friend, "he'll be going to all the lectures at our university, as well."

"Hiffom's right — we'll have to transfer into another field," Tileka agreed. "Find something else to study."

Something dark crept up Arasine's face.

As she sucked in a small, sharp breath.

"I'm sorry, but… this Lord Mazenku… is just a normal uni student?" Seo said. She shook her head. "I would have thought the crowned prince or whoever would have a private tutor, or—"

"Extended imperial family," Arasine corrected, softly. "The sixth cousin five times removed of the Imperial Emperor himself, may he live forever. He's not… the crowned prince."

Right.

"So there are tons of these extended royal family blokes floating around," Seo clarified. "And every time they get interested in a lecture… all you women have to leave?"

"All must pay respect to the Imperial Family," said Hiffom.

"Indeed," Tileka agreed. "We of the lesser sex should feel privileged to be getting any education at all! How do we dare protest…?"

"The Earthwoman's right," Arasine cut in, sharply.

Everyone spun around to face her. Seo… almost taken aback.

She'd thought she'd seen Arasine angry before. The Draconian had very nearly gone into fisticuffs earlier, after all! But this… was different.

An intense, burning, passionate anger.

Flooding through every cell of her being.

"After all the work I've put into my experiments…" Arasine sucked in another sharp breath, on a hiss. "What right does Lord Mazenku have to make me abandon my work? How dare he?!"

Tileka and Hiffom both shushed their friend.

Scared that someone might be listening.

"Experiments?" Seo asked, suddenly intrigued.

"She meant studies," Tileka insisted. "A slip of the tongue."

"No female of the lesser sex would dream of setting foot in a lab," said Hiffom. "Much less—!"

"Yes, experiments," Arasine interrupted. Looking Seo straight in the eye. "The implications of my theories were too important to ignore. I needed to act. We've set up a secret lab in the basement beneath the Cyzun Spiral Arch, and have been experimenting for some time, now."

Oh.

So  _that_  was the 'nothing' that Arasine had been so hush-hush about, earlier.

"My lady!" Hiffom pleaded. Looking around themselves, in terror. "Please, do not speak so! Not out in the open. Not to an alien. Who knows what…?"

"Yes, I  _am_  a lady," Arasine interrupted. "And as such, will confide in whomever I choose, Tileka. Do you dare question my judgment?"

Hiffom and Tileka exchanged uneasy looks.

Obviously, they  _did_.

But wouldn't dare to say so out loud.

"Something  _is_ wrong in Draconia, and whoever this Earthwoman is… she knows it," said Arasine. "So if Lord Mazenku suspects me…"

"But my lady, how could he…?" Tileka protested.

"If he suspects me," Arasine interrupted, "and this is the last day we have to make this work — then we need help." She turned to Seo. "She will help us."

It was the tone of voice that usually meant… I've got a very big gun in my hand, so you'd better do what I say. Except… without any gun that Seo could see.

Not at the moment.

Were all Draconian nobles were this bossy, or just Arasine?

"But, with respect, Lady Arasine — she's an alien," Tileka reminded her friend. "We all agreed how dangerous our research might be in alien hands — in  _anyone's_  hands!"

"We agreed — the moment we saved Draconia, we would dismantle the experiment," Hiffom agreed. "And pretend it had never happened. None of it."

Arasine shot them a dark, overpowering stare.

One that made the other two shrink away — and made Seo, herself, edge back.

"Earthwoman," said Arasine, pacing towards Seo, eyes locked. "I know you have the scientific understanding to comprehend what we've built. Our earlier discussion told me so."

Earlier…?

Ah. Walking around talking science, just after they'd first met.

Looked like, while Seo had been fishing around, trying to work out what was going on… Arasine had been purposely prompting Seo to see how much she knew.

Clever.

"Our work is very dangerous and very secret," Arasine continued. Her voice almost too low to hear. "If you wished, you could steal our secrets and wipe out our race. Make the human empire reign supreme. Even… destroy the universe."

Seo nodded, slowly. "Right…" She cringed. Then whispered, "You know I  _just_  tried to destroy the universe last week?"

"You said something of the sort," Arasine replied. "And if I had another option, I would take it. But I don't."

Seo quirked an eyebrow.

"The truth is… few minds could so much as comprehend the theory behind our research," Arasine said. "But you grasp it fully. In fact… you seem to know more on the subject than I. You speak as if you know it's possible."

Seo looked between Tileka, Hiffom, and Arasine.

Remembering her discussion with Arasine. And those few times when the topic had drifted away from light… and onto a different subject all together…

Oh, no.

So that's why bits of Draconian history had gone missing.

"Time travel," Seo breathed. "You've been experimenting… with time travel."


	5. Chapter 5

A massage and a few cocktails later, and Jack was out in the sunlight, again. Trying to figure out what had happened to Seo, and why the Draconians seemed to have… gaps in their knowledge.

He'd met a number of Draconians, in the past.

Damn good looking ones, too.

They'd all had pretty clear priorities on making sure their culture and heritage was preserved. Oral traditions were passed down, generation to generation, each taking on a duty to remember all they'd been told.

Except… for some reason…

The Draconians at this conference seemed to have trouble remembering things.

"Yes, due to the recent efforts of Lord Veylar to redeem House… Katar… to…" the Draconian stroked his white beard, confused. "…sorry, but I seem… to be unable to recall…"

The Draconian looked off into the distance, as if trying to find the answer somewhere in the horizon.

"Ah!" said the Draconian, instead, grabbing for a chance to change the subject. "I do believe this is a student from your university. New Harvard, yes?"

Jack turned.

And saw Ilene heading over, her head buried in a notebook, as she frowned intensely at her notes and muttered to herself.

"Actually—" Jack started.

But the Draconian had already fled, clearly unnerved by the memory loss.

Ilene looked up, at Jack's voice. Spotted him, and her face relaxed a little. "Oh, hello again." She closed the notebook. "How's the conference going?"

"Can't complain." Jack stretched his arms out. "Got a massage. Got some booze. Those Draconians really know how to wine and dine you, huh?"

Ilene shrugged. "I wouldn't know. Professors only, I guess."

Jack offered her his arm. "Well, if Professor Claude hasn't already offered," he said, with a wink, "I do a great wine and dine myself."

Ilene gave him a smile.

Eyeing him up and down, and nodding in approval.

"I don't know who the Professor Claude person is," said Ilene, taking his arm. "But… I think I could handle some 'wine and dine'."

"Your wish is my…" Jack paused. Turned back to her. "Professor Claude. You're part of his research team. You came here with him, from New Harvard."

He scanned her blank expression.

"Oh, don't tell me you're forgetting things, too," Jack muttered.

"I'm not forgetting anything," Ilene snapped. "But my research team didn't show up here with any Professor. And no one named 'Claude'. My group is advised by… Professor…"

Ilene frowned.

Confused.

"…that's weird," Ilene muttered. "I can't remember the name." She turned back to Jack. Taking her hand away, suddenly. "Come to think of it… I can't remember how I know  _you_."

Jack took a deep breath. "Okay, definitely something not right, here."

"I mean, you're attractive enough, don't get me wrong," Ilene said, backing away from him. "But… I don't just jump into bed with the first person I meet. I'm not that kind of woman!"

"Never thought you were," Jack said. Glancing down to fiddle with his Vortex Manipulator, do a routine scan to find anything that could be causing this. Nothing. "You wouldn't happen to have seen Seo around, anywhere?"

"She went off with some Draconian…" Ilene began.

Then stopped.

Frowned.

"I… don't remember… meeting anyone named…" Ilene muttered. She shook her head, shooting Jack a glare. "You just… whatever you're doing to my head… you get away from me, mister! And stay away!" She raised up her notebook, like a weapon. "I mean it."

Then she turned, and ran.

Jack looking after her, more than a little worried.

"Memories are getting scrambled, people are disappearing right and left," Jack said. "And now… Seo's gone, too." He turned on his heel, greatcoat billowing out around him. "Better find her. Fast."

* * *

"So… let me get this straight," Seo said, as Arasine and the others activated the second secret doorway in the passage beneath the arch. "You three have been mucking about with time travel. And you never thought that, maybe…  _this_ is why bits of your history are disappearing?"

"It isn't," Arasine said, grabbing a book off one of the bookshelves lining the hallway, and opening it to expose a hidden keypad. She punched in the combination.

And the next secret door opened.

"Whatever is changing around people's memories, it had nothing to do with us," Tileka agreed. "We started our experiments as a result of the trouble. To fix it."

Seo actually laughed out loud, at this.

"Oh, that's a classic paradox, right there!" Seo said. "You notice something's wrong with time, so you go back to fix it. But by fixing it, you cause it to happen in the first place."

Hiffom opened a hidden panel in the wall, and pressed a button.

The final secret door slid aside.

And the lab lit up, before them.

"We didn't cause this," Hiffom insisted. Gestured at the lab. "If you really understand as much as the Lady Arasine claims, you'll be able to see why."

Seo shook out her hair. "Doubt it," she said, as she strolled into the lab.

But stopped in the doorway.

Staring at the setup around her.

Mirrors upon mirrors upon mirrors, and a complex array of photon accelerators and light bombardment engines set up facing the mirror panels.

All carefully and intricately calibrated.

Seo frowned. Then shook her head. "But… this isn't a time machine!"

"We know," said Tileka, walking past her into the lab. "We never had any intention of building a time machine. What would be the point?"

"It's only our memories that are fading, not the past events themselves," Hiffom said. "So what we need are  _images_ of the past. To allow Draconians like us to see our heritage and remind ourselves of the vital events that slipped our minds."

Seo's eyes went wide. "You've invented the space-time visualizer!" She raced around, examining it all in closer detail. "Oh, I've heard about space-time visualizers. Never actually seen one in person, though. Does it work?"

"Yes," said Tileka.

While, at the same time, Arasine muttered, "Not exactly."

Seo looked up at them.

"It  _does_  project an image of the past," Tileka explained. "But it seems limited to one area, and one time period. When nothing much is happening. We can't work out how to change the date or location."

Seo tapped the light bombardment engine, thoughtfully.

Trying to digest it all.

"It was Arasine's discovery," Hiffom explained. "An ingenious breakthrough in mathematics and physics. Using a particular frequency of light, at just the right intensity and reflected in just the right way, to make it refract off those mirrors at the far end…" she pointed, "to… well, in essence, bounce the light off a mirror dimension, and have it wind up back in the past."

"The presence of a future photon in the past changes the behavior of the past photons," Arasine added. "So that the opposite effect happens. Bouncing those past photons into the future — to us. Which creates an image."

"But wouldn't that mean, that — while you get an image of the past," Seo checked, "they get an image of the future?"

That could change history, just in itself.

"Only a very small one," said Arasine. "And you'd need a certain kind of mirror to pick it up. Normally… the image would be invisible to the naked eye."

Hiffom gestured at a small, pocket mirror. Held carefully in place, in the center of a mass of machinery.

They weren't kidding about small — it was barely bigger than Seo's palm!

"So you see, we've changed nothing about the past," Tileka concluded. "This couldn't possibly have been our fault."

Seo nodded, slowly. Still trying to trace the systems and processes she was seeing, splayed out before her. She headed towards the far end of the setup, surrounded by mirrors — all set up to carefully bounce the focused light beam from one to another to another, and eventually through a lens into a final mirror, shaped differently and made out of a rubbery-looking, but highly reflective, substance.

And just below that rubbery substance… was the mini-mirror.

Currently blank.

"Because the image is so small, we project it onto the big mirrors," said Tileka, gesturing at them. "Although… sometimes those ones are a bit… unreliable."

"They worked last time, though," Hiffom put in.

"Right." Seo scratched her head. "So… this whole setup really works?" she double checked. "It really shows you an image of the past?"

They stared at her like she was being stupid.

"We told you it did," Hiffom said. "Several times."

"And explained the theory behind it," Arasine added.

Seo crossed her arms, blowing a breath out of her cheeks.

Thinking, furiously.

This must be a section that the Weapon had burned away inside her mind, because… while she had no doubt that something was going on with time, here, and that this machine was almost certainly the cause of it… Seo couldn't, for the life of her, figure out how this setup actually managed to travel through time.

There had to be something she was missing!

Something she…!

Seo spun around, suddenly, staring at the mirror behind her. The hairs standing up on the back of her neck, as… just for a moment, she was sure… she'd seen…!

"A reflection," Seo said.

But it was gone before she could get a clear look.

Just a lingering impression, deep inside her. Like she'd seen a flash of something… something…

"No — that wasn't me," Seo said. Racing over to the mirror. "I can't see myself in the mirror! It can't have been…!"

She squinted, deep into the mirror's depths. Blank it may be… but — just out of the corner of her eye — it was like she knew  _something_  was here. Some suppressed image… of a grinning face…

Her face?

No.

Couldn't be! Couldn't!

"What do you mean, can't see yourself in the mirror?" said Hiffom. Pointing into the nearest mirror. "I can see your reflection perfectly fine, from where I'm standing. Nothing out of the ordinary."

Seo spun back. "You… didn't see that? None of you?" She darted her eyes over to the mirror, and… just for a fraction of a second…

There it was.

Again.

A flicker… an outline… the smallest glimpse of a reflection.

Gone before she could see it properly.

Leaving her with just the faintest impression of that grin…

"Impossible," Seo muttered. Reaching out for the mirror. "It… doesn't make sense. Can't make…"

Tileka lunged for her, yanking her away from the mirror. "They're all very carefully calibrated," she said. "One single touch could be enough to undo it all."

"You're probably just seeing the lingering photon trace from our last experiment," Hiffom proposed.

Seo turned back to the three Draconians. "Which means… I'd be seeing an image of the past," she said. "And since Jack said you Draconians never embraced aliens here, before — then I'd be seeing the face of a Draconian, staring back at me."

Seemed to make sense to everyone else.

"But since I got here," said Seo, staring at them, hard, "I've never seen a single Draconian  _grin_."


	6. Chapter 6

"...since I got here," said Seo, staring at them, hard, "I've never seen a single Draconian  _grin_."

That made them all look at one another in confusion.

Clearly, Tileka and Hiffom were having more and more doubts about bringing Seo into this project. They must think she was mad.

"Can you help us choose where and when this contraption shows us?" Arasine asked Seo. "Or is this visit a waste of all our time?"

Seo wasn't sure.

"Well, if I could figure out how it managed to actually travel through time, I suppose I could..." Seo drew in a sharp breath. Then turned back to Arasine. "Maybe… if I saw it in operation, that might help."

Arasine thought this through.

Then recalibrated a few bits of equipment, and nodded. Fitting a pair of shaded visors across her eyes. "Hiffom, Tileka. If you'd do me the honor."

"The honor has been given and is accepted, greatly, my lady," said Hiffom, with a bow, as she donned her own visor, and headed towards the lights to the lab.

Shutting them all down.

Seo found Tileka gently pulling her out of the way, and settling another visor over her head. As Tileka adjusted her own visor, and turned to the controls for the mini-mirror.

"Beginning photon acceleration," said Arasine, starting up the machine. "Phased at 120 past the Honorable Ivere's Constant."

Seo had to shield her eyes, as a beam of light suddenly blazed into existence, reflecting and bouncing off every single mirror, in turn.

"Rephasing light beam," said Hiffom, as she raced back to the photon accelerators, and began switching their settings. The light began to change color, as did the shadows in the room. "110… 100… 85…"

Seo put her hand up against her visor.

Frowning.

"A secret lab, not expecting anyone but the three of them," Seo muttered. "And yet… they have four visors."

"Hundred and twenty over the Draconian Safety Threshold," Tileka announced, taking some measurements. "Write that down in the log…"

She paused.

Looked around herself.

Confused.

"…Lady Arasine," Tileka said.

"I'm a bit busy," said Arasine, keeping careful control over the light bombardment array, to ensure the experiment could be reproduced. "Why don't you ask…?"

Arasine paused.

Faltered.

"…the Earthwoman," Arasine said, finally. "Seo."

Seo found a digital logbook thrust at her, as the light flickered again, changing colors.

"Approaching 22.3 past the Honorable Ivere's Constant," Hiffom announced.

Which was when reality seemed to lurch.

The beam of pulsing a deep purple light across the room, passing through each of the mirrors and… illuminating…

Seo squinted.

There, in the flickers… she could make out a human-looking man.

Wandering through the lab, completely at ease.

"What…?" Seo breathed, setting down the logbook.

His face.

It was _that_  face. The one she'd seen out of the corner of her eye, in the mirror here. No, out of the corner of her eye in  _every_  mirror, since she'd first stepped onto Draconia.

She just hadn't realized it before now.

"Arasine…" came Tileka's voice — but infinitely slowed, "keep… the beam… steady…."

Seo spun around, peering at the lab.

Everyone around her had slowed. Their movements. Their voices. Everything they were saying or doing, as if they'd been suddenly caught on a slow-motion film, and couldn't get out.

But Seo, herself, was fine.

And so was the mirror man, flickering into and out of existence.

"Who… are you, Mister-Glowy-Light-Man?" Seo demanded. Gesturing around herself. "Are  _you_  doing this?"

The figure stopped.

"Interesting," he said, turning to her. "You can see me. Even out here. That shouldn't be possible." He took a step closer to her, and his facial features smudged before her eyes, blurry and out-of-focus. "Eyes not tuned to the right dimensional frequency?"

Seo felt her breath catch in her throat.

The air around the man was ice-cold.

As if he exuded it, with every step.

"Which means there's only one person you could be," said the mirror man. "Seosyrae. The Super-Weapon designed to destroy gods."

"Constant… achieved…" Hiffom announced, her voice still slow and stifled.

"Mirrors… online," Tileka announced, her voice just as slow. "Image… of the past… projecting…"

"Aren't they sweet?" said the mirror man, gesturing at them. "They think they're getting an image of the past."

Seo flicked her eyes to the mirrors, around her.

And froze.

Across every single one of them, she could see an image. Of the Imperial Gardens, but not as she'd seen them when she'd arrived here. The Gardens in the mirrors were free of students, free of conference flyers, of structures or buildings or anything. Just a few scattered Draconians, walking around it, admiring its beauty.

"But it's not the past," Seo realized. Wanting to hit herself for not working it out sooner! "That's why I couldn't figure out how the light traveled through time! Because… it doesn't."

"Nope," the mirror man agreed.

Seo stepped towards the mirrors, tentatively. Her eyes never leaving the reflection of the imperial gardens. "So if it's not the past, then what…?"

In the blink of an eye, the man was over by Hiffom. One arm twisting, as it wrapped around her body. "The future," the mystery-man said. Curling his other arm around her, so that his entire being smothered her. "For all of them. Everyone on this planet."

Then, with a sudden yank, he tore Hiffom from this reality — so that she pulsed in the purple light, hazy as he was.

"No!" Seo cried. Charging forwards. "You put her back, right…!"

But the mirror man just laughed, as he leapt, with Hiffom, out of reality and into the surface of one of the big mirrors. "You want her back? Come and find her!"

Seo sprinted after them, slamming against the big mirror with a decisive THUNK!

The light died down.

And cut out.

"Control on the photon accelerators!" Arasine shouted, suddenly back in normal time. "Power failure on—"

The mirror Seo had run into wavered and wobbled. Then dropped, shattering against the ground.

"Tileka, lights!" Arasine cried.

The overhead lights to the lab flickered back on. To reveal herself, Tileka, and Arasine. Along with one shattered mirror, beside her.

And nothing left of Hiffom.

Except the visor she'd been wearing, now left on the ground.

"How did the Earthwoman get over there?" Tileka said, staring at Seo. "She's destroyed the mirror! And who knows what else! She might have ruined our whole…!"

"Hiffom," Seo cut in. Racing over to the visor, and scooping it up off the ground. "The creepy mirror-man just took Hiffom. Didn't you see him?"

Arasine and Tileka stared at Seo, blankly.

"What are you talking about?" said Arasine. "Who is Hiffom?"

"Hiffom!" said Seo. "She was right here!" She waved the visor at them. "She was wearing  _this_ …!"

Then stopped.

Frozen.

As she touched her own visor.

"Four visors," said Seo, quietly, "in a secret, hidden lab. Where you weren't expecting anyone else to visit." She stared at Tileka and Arasine. "This has happened before. There used to be four of you."

"It's always been the three of us," said Tileka. "Just me, the Lady Arasine, and…"

She stopped.

Hesitated.

"Two," Arasine corrected. "The  _two_  of us."

Seo looked between them. "This is why there are so many gaps in your knowledge," she realized. "This is why Draconian society has suddenly fallen into sharp decline. Someone's been snatching people out of history, and sealing them into a mirror dimension. So that none of you can remember them, anymore."

Tileka stared at Seo like she was mad.

Completely mad.

"Nothing is being snatched out of history," Arasine replied. "We've told you. Our experiment does nothing except change—"

"—the light in the room!" Seo agreed. "To bring him into my visible spectrum! So I could see him."

"This is absurd," Tileka said.

"No, it makes perfect sense," Seo insisted. "That's why I kept seeing something funny in every reflective surface across Draconia. Like there was something… just out of sight! His normal state must be only slightly off from my visible spectrum — and your setup brought him into it."

"Tileka is right — your words are nonsense," Arasine cut in. She gestured at the mirrors and lenses around her. "This is a time experiment, designed to show us the past. There is no… invisible mirror-man."

"But as a time machine, this doesn't work," Seo insisted. "You said it yourself! The light refracts through your lenses, into a mirror dimension!" She turned on Arasine. "But it didn't bounce off the dimension. It  _entered_  the dimension." She pointed at the mirrors. "You're seeing everyone you lost. You're seeing…"

She froze.

 _It's the future. For everyone on this planet_.

A glimpse that couldn't be moved. A glimpse through a pane of glass, almost like…

"A window," Seo said. Yes, she'd felt it — waving her hand over that small mirror. "You've made a window into the mirror dimension. A locked window. That's why you can't change where or what it sees!"

"A window," Arasine deadpanned.

This obviously didn't count, in her mind, as 'help'.

"Yes — well, I don't seem to be able to find the door," said Seo. Thinking of her thudding into that mirror. "Or not the one he's using, at any rate. But… a locked window… with the right key…"

"My lady, we need to decide what to do with the Earthwoman," Tileka said to Arasine. "Her talk of… this… 'Hiffom' makes me uneasy. It could be a contact she's using to spy on us."

Arasine considered. "I suppose…"

Seo thrust herself away from them. "Oh, come on!" she shouted. "Is that the best you can do? I'm a spy?!" She turned, and sprinted towards the small hand-mirror. "Tell you what — I'll prove it!"

Tileka lunged for her, but Seo darted out of the way.

"Stop her, she'll break our equipment!" Arasine shouted.

Seo gritted her teeth, reaching down to the Key energies buried deep inside herself. Barely managing to escape Tileka and Arasine, as they wove around, trying to catch her before she could get to the equipment.

There!

"A dimensional lock," Seo said, darting straight for the mini hand-mirror. "My specialty."

A rush of wind raced through her hair, as she felt the window unlock and unfold before her. The dimension reaching for her, like a small child reaching for a familiar teddy bear.

And she stepped into it.

"Seo?" shouted Arasine's voice, now far away. "What…?!"

"That's impossible!" shouted Tileka, even further.

Their voices slid out of this reality, completely. Becoming just noise and static and wind in Seo's ears.

As she fell out of one reality.

And into another.

* * *

"Blonde girl," Jack described. "Short." He gestured with his hand, to show her height. "Way stronger than she looks. Likes to talk circles around you. Always gets herself into heaps of trouble before anyone can blink twice?"

The Honorable Flascarf thought a moment.

"No, Professor," Flascarf decided. "I regret I have not seen any Earth female of that description."

"Talks too loud, bangs, freckles?" came the voice of a Liquaran Professor, nearby. He slithered over, on glowing tentacles. "I saw someone like that. Overheard her, too."

Jack turned on the Liquaran. Not a bad-looking Liquaran, if Jack had to be honest, but he decided to postpone the hook-up until he found Seo and made sure she hadn't gotten herself abducted or arrested or forgotten.

One good thing about Liquarans, though.

They had the best sense of hearing Jack had ever known, in any species this side of the Milky Way.

"Just outside of Professor Quinimol's talk," the Liquaran continued. "She was with some Draconian students. Women, looked like. Something about a… secret lab, beneath the Cyzun Spiral Arch."

Lord Nyin's face twitched with sudden interest.

"Secret lab — that sounds like Seo," Jack said. "Where can I find…?"

"I will take you there," said Lord Nyin, turning away from Jack, and towards the comms equipment. "Once I've gathered my men. After all, as head of security on Draconia… any secret lab is of great interest to me."


	7. Chapter 7

Seo opened her eyes.

Found herself in the Imperial Gardens, just as the way she'd seen them in the mirrors. It all seemed real enough, but… wrong, somehow. Not just backwards, as she expected, but… dimensionally funny. Like it made her insides turn back-flips.

"Hello?" she called. "Creepy mirror man?"

Then caught sight of a Draconian, wandering nearby, looking at a beautiful arrangement of flowers. Seo sprinted over to the Draconian.

"Hey," she said, putting a hand on his shoulder and turning him around. "Have you seen…?"

She stopped short.

The Draconian's face was almost completely gone. Every feature slowly eroded away, until all that was left was empty skin. His eyes remained — but were empty. Hollow.

Seo stepped back.

And the Draconian returned to the flowers.

"Routines," said the creepy mirror man's voice, whispering in her ear. "Even when you take away everything they are, they still always stick to those same routines."

Seo spun around.

But no one was there.

"Where are you?" Seo demanded. "What have you done with Hiffom?!"

He blinked into existence, a short ways away. Over by a patch of trees, near the reflecting pool. "Funny thing about this dimension," he said. "Every time someone new comes along, the dimension takes a little something from their minds that makes them feel at home."

He gestured to his right.

At the carousel that Seo hadn't quite noticed, before. Turning round and round, with little plastic horses bobbing in time to music.

"Courtesy of Professor Claude," said the mirror man. "He used to ride them, when he was a little boy."

Professor Claude…

So  _he_  was here, too…

How many other people were here? Just how much damage had this mirror man caused?

"I wonder what you'll contribute," said the mirror man. He tapped a finger against his chin. "What makes  _you_  feel at home, Seosyrae?"

The sounds of marching feet echoed around Seo.

As she spun round herself, coming face-to-face with an army of Cybermen.

Oddly enough, her first feeling, upon seeing them, was relief and familiarity. Finally, some people who were like her, ready to…!

Then she snapped back to her senses.

And shuddered away from them. Forcing them out of her mind.

As she did so, the Cybermen faded from the landscape.

"Cybermen? I'll admit, not exactly what I expected," the mirror man remarked. "Looks like you're full of surprises."

Surprises.

Seo gritted her teeth.

She didn't want to be full of surprises, anymore. She just wanted to get back to being herself.

"Where is Hiffom?" Seo shouted, turning back to face the mirror man. "Professor Claude? And where's… that other one you took, from Arasine's secret lab?"

* * *

"That's impossible," said Tileka, staring at where Seo had just disappeared. "It cannot possibly have happened. How…?"

Arasine walked over to the mirror, slowly.

Clearly mystified.

"She… walked into the mirror," said Arasine. "That great big Earthwoman stepped through that… tiny little mirror. Except…"

"…that doesn't make sense," Tileka confirmed. "Yes, Lady Arasine. I know."

Arasine picked the mirror out of its rig. Studying it, intently — as if it held all the answers. "We might be mad," she said.

"Draconians do not go mad, my Lady," said Tileka. "It is a well-known fact."

"Just because we  _say_  we have no mental illnesses does not mean it's true," Arasine corrected. She shook her head. "But I don't think either of us are mad."

"I agree, my Lady," Tileka said.

"Which means… what we saw must have been reality," said Arasine. Inspecting the mirror in her hands. "That Earthwoman stepped into this mirror. Into… the mirror dimension."

"Humans can't do that," said Tileka.

"Yes — but she never said she was human," Arasine said. "Only that she was from Earth." She thought a moment longer. Then sighed. "Well. There's one obvious way to see if she's inside the mirror. We start up the equipment and look for ourselves."

Tileka shot Arasine a pointed stare. "With respect, my Lady — how are we supposed to control three systems at once without help from the Earthwoman?"

Arasine hesitated.

Looking around themselves.

"The experiment requires control over three systems at once," she muttered. "But… there are just two of us. So, all those other times, how…?" Arasine spun back to Tileka. "The Earthwoman Seo mentioned someone else. A… Hiffom."

"This endeavor's always been the two of us," said Tileka.

Arasine shook her head. "But what if it hasn't?" she insisted. She stared at the small hand-mirror, her eyes unfocused. "Do you ever get the feeling that… there's something… someone… you should remember? Only… you don't."

"My lady?"

Arasine snapped out of her reverie. "Nothing," she insisted. "Simply the irrational dreams of the weaker sex. Ignore my—"

The door to the secret lab burst open.

And a group of Draconian police stormed into the lab, guns raised at the duo.

"Don't move!" they shouted. "In the name of the Emperor, may light and life shine upon him forever, you are under arrest."

"In the name of…?!" Arasine stepped forwards. "Do you have any idea who you're addressing?"

The police grabbed her back, physically restraining her with as much force as they needed. Refusing to be beaten by the weak, impertinent woman.

"I'm addressing a criminal, Lady Arasine," said Lord Nyin. "One who has shamed Draconia! If it were up to me, you'd be stripped of your rank and executed for what you've done."

An Earth-man burst in, just behind the police.

Worried eyes scanning across the room, desperately looking for someone else.

"Seo!" the Earth-man shouted, turning to the Draconian women. "Where's…?"

Arasine and Tileka looked at one another.

Then back at the Earthman.

"She… said she there was someone in the mirror," Tileka admitted, in a small voice. "And then she just… stepped inside it. Somehow."

The man looked horrified. "What?!"

"Trust women to take solid science and turn it into an excuse to make up stories and spread superstition," said Lord Nyin, stepping into the lab. He snarled at the equipment around him, as if it sickened him to think that females had dared to touch these items! "An Earthwoman… stepping into a mirror!"

"Into a mirror dimension, I think you'll find," said Arasine, in a low voice.

The Earthman's face went pale. As looked over at the mirrors with mounting alarm.

"Damn," the man said. "And I really hoped you were kidding."


	8. Chapter 8

The mirror man pouted at Seo. "Is that all you're interested in? The fates of some boring Draconians and one boring human?" He stepped backwards, gesturing around himself. "No asking who I am? Where this is? Why I'm doing this?"

Seo stepped forwards. "I was getting to that. But first… where are they?"

"Professor Claude is already mostly gone," said the mirror man. "Cielle — well, all that's left of her, now, is that visor you're wearing."

Seo put her hand up to her head.

Where the visor was still perched, nestled in her hair.

"As for Hiffom…" The mirror man stepped aside, revealing a figure in the distance. "She's right there." He disappeared into the air. "Come and get her."

Seo began to run, fast as she could, towards Hiffom.

But the landscape shifted around her, and… before she'd gone even a meter… she found herself at the outskirts of a very familiar-looking desert. With a very familiar looking house, near the remains of a sign that said, "Welcome to Sunnydale."

A crater just behind it.

Seo froze.

"Earth." She backed up a few steps, eyes fixed on the view before her. "21st century Earth."

"Your home," said the mirror man, popping up again, this time right beside her.

Seo spun around, to flee. Turn tail and get away from it, fast as she could.

"But I thought you wanted to save Hiffom," said the mirror man. He pointed at the patch of 21st century Earth. "Just pass through there… and she'll be on the other side."

Seo stopped in her tracks.

Turned back around, to face Sunnydale.

But… as the faces of Dawn and Ace came into sight… chasing down Elizabeth on a motorbike… Seo found she couldn't move.

Couldn't go back.

"Fears are fascinating, aren't they?" said the mirror man. "You can be dead-set on rescuing someone… but one little fear leaves you paralyzed." He stared at her, hard. "Or… in your case… makes you try to destroy the universe."

Seo turned on him. "How do you know about that?"

He winked at her. Said nothing.

"I… had a bad day," Seo said. Paused. "A very bad day."

"So you figured… if  _I'm_ having a bad day, why not make  _theirs_ worse?" He grinned. "Like your style. Want a job as my assistant?"

Seo glared at him. "Job? And what's  _your_  job? Just who are you?!"

The mirror man grinned. "Oh, finally, you're asking the interesting questions." Leaned back against a tree, arms crossed. "Let me tell you a story — about the Glarnov."

"I don't have time for your stupid stories, just tell me—!" Seo paused. Thought. Then, a little tentatively… "Wait. Glarnov. I've… heard that name before."

"Yes, growing up," said the mirror man. "A bedtime story. I know." His grin widened. "But my version's better."

Seo quirked an eyebrow at him.

"Once upon a time," said the mirror man, "there was a race of extremely talented weapon builders called the Glarnov, who realized they could make a fortune by supplying weapons to both sides of a particularly nasty Time War."

Seo blinked. "I'm sorry?"

"Unfortunately," the mirror man continued, "the plan didn't work so well. The moment the two armies learned that the Glarnov were supplying both sides, they used their superior time travel technology to travel back to the Glarnov's past. Either to sabotage weapons the Glarnov was making for the other side, or just to exterminate everyone in sight."

That sounded like Daleks to Seo.

"And, of course, the two armies would run into each other, while going back in time," said the mirror man. "Which started a whole lot of fighting." He brushed his hand through the air. "Long story short, the Glarnov home world turned into a battlefield. Past and present."

"They should have thought of that," Seo muttered.

"The Glarnov tried to save themselves by pulling out of the war and ending their weapons contracts," the mirror man went on. "But that just caused the time faring races go even further back and  _steal_  the weapons. Causing even more chaos."

"Listen, as fascinating as this is," Seo said, "I don't really care about the Time War. It happened before I was born, and has nothing to do with me." Seo shot him a glare. "Which means you better stop with the pointless stories, and tell me—"

"So the smartest Glarnov got together," the mirror man cut in, ignoring her, "and created a weapon that'd scoop their enemies out of time, transport them to a mirror dimension, and then slowly drain away their entire existence."

"I said, stop telling stories and—" Seo stopped. Looked around herself. "Wait. You said… a mirror dimension."

The mirror man gave her a thumbs up.

And Seo shuddered.

"For a little while, it worked," said the mirror man. "The weapon sucked up Daleks and Time Lords alike, and took them completely out of reality. No paradoxes, due to the mirror dimension. And the Glarnov homeworld went back to normal." The mirror man raised his eyebrows, and leaned in closer to Seo. "But those races in the Time War — they weren't dummies. They figured out the truth."

"And traveled back in time, to alter the weapon so it couldn't kill off their own race — just the other side," Seo guessed. She furrowed her brow, as a thought came into her head. "If this place was designed to scoop up both Daleks and Time Lords… are there any living…?"

The mirror man shot her a look. "No one survives long in here, kiddo."

Seo went quiet.

Realizing just how many people this dimension had claimed.

"So that's this place," Seo said, at last. "Who are  _you_?"

The mirror man laughed. "Can't you guess?" He skipped forwards. "I'm what you get with too many cooks spoiling the soup! All those clever time travelers, all tampering around inside me…"

Seo's eyes went wide.

"And… next thing you know… pop!" The mirror man spread open his arms. "I became alive. Accidentally, mind you. No one, on any side, ever  _wanted_ me to actually be  _sentient_ , after all." He paused. Reflected — "I think it was the Time Lords who made that final change to my programming that did the trick. Well… suppose that makes sense." Gesturing down at himself. "Looking like this. Made in their own image! And it wouldn't be the  _only_ time they built a sentient super-weapon that could kill everyone."

"You," said Seo, staring at him. "You're the Glarnov's weapon."

The mirror man shrugged. "Beats being created by magic monks, darling."

Seo shut up.

"Thing is, having to go through the motions and take orders from those stupid Glarnov," the mirror man went on, "day in and day out — well, I thought about all of this. And realized… I didn't give a damn about Time Lords or Daleks." He looked right into Seo's eyes. "In fact… there was only one group I  _really_ wanted to erase from time."

"The Glarnov," Seo breathed.

"The Glarnov," the weapon confirmed.

"You wiped out your own people!"

"Oh, a few escaped," the weapon replied. "Used my mirror dimension as a jumping off point, so they could get out of the war and flee somewhere far, far away. I think they intended to use some devastating bomb to wipe out the native species on a random class 5 planet, and start all over again."

Seo felt cold.

As she realized… this was the story she'd heard, as a little girl.

"But your mother put a stop to that," said the weapon. "The last of the Glarnov. Murdered, by her. 'Genocide', I think that's called."

Seo surged at him, trying to punch him in the jaw — but he disappeared before she could reach him.

And popped up, a little ways away.

"Look at you!" said the weapon. "Striving to defend the mother you killed."

"Mom didn't commit genocide," Seo said, spinning on him. " _You_  did! Mom was the one saving lives!"

The weapon contemplated Seo, fascinated.

"Oh, I really wish I could kill you," the weapon said. "Your reputation doesn't do you justice — I had no idea you'd be so much  _fun_! So feisty and so certain you're on the side of righteousness!"

"But I'm part-Time Lord," Seo guessed. "And they programmed you so that you can't kill Time Lords."

"On the contrary, Dalek programming scrambled the 'don't kill Time Lords' part of my systems," said the weapon. "Just like the Time Lord programming scrambled the 'don't kill Daleks' directive. I can kill any Time Lord or Dalek I want." He sighed. "Just… not  _you_."

Seo paused.

"Why…?"

"I was programmed by many Time Lords during the war," said the weapon. "And one after it.  _He_  wanted to make sure I kept you alive."

He.

Oh.

That explained that.

"I never knew why," the weapon mused. He tapped his chin. "Of course, you were a statue for a few million years. Maybe he wants you for his Collection."

"Collection?" Seo shook her head. "Father doesn't…"

"Oh, did you think I was talking about the Doctor?" The weapon laughed. "Don't think I ever mentioned him, kiddo."

Seo stared at him.

The only other Time Lord she could think of who'd survived the Time War was the Master, and she couldn't figure out how he'd have managed to get into this dimension, during her time on the Valiant.

"Tell you what, though," said the Glarnov weapon. A twinkle in his eyes. "Since I can't kill you, and… well, let's be honest, you don't have a hope in hell of killing me — how about you join my little game?"

Seo eyed him, warily.

"What game? No, actually." She held up a finger. "First. Give me back Hiffom."

In a flash, Hiffom appeared beside her.

"You!" Hiffom said, recognizing Seo. "What are you doing here? Where are we? Did… did that terrible human kidnap you into the mirror as—?"

"Trust me, he's nothing to do with humans," Seo cut in, standing in between the Glarnov weapon and Hiffom.

Hiffom gave a small gasp of terror, as she saw the man in front of them.

"Now," said Seo, her eyes narrow. "What game?"

The Glarnov weapon laughed. "Oh, not a game, just part of one — a little deal I had in mind," he said. "I mean — let's face it. You might be the 'good guy', while I'm the 'bad guy', but in the end, we were both built to kill. It's our nature."

"I don't want that," Seo snapped. "I won't be like that! I'm a person!"

The Glarnov weapon snorted. "'People' don't try to end the universe just because they're a teensy bit depressed, you know."

Seo shut up.

"End the universe?" Hiffom asked, in a small voice.

Seo ignored her.

"So I'm thinking… an exchange of lives," said the Glarnov weapon. He raised up his hand, in traditional oath-swearing fashion. "I promise. If you give me one life… I'll spare your Draconian friends — Arasine and her two lapdogs. And…" He paused. Looking her up and down. "…I'll throw in the human race, too. Sweeten the deal."

"And if I don't accept," Seo said, crossing her arms, "I'm guessing you'll find some way to make sure I witness every second of you eating my friends?"

The Glarnov weapon laughed. "Now you're talking my language."

"Which one? Melodrama or bullshit?" Seo sighed. "All right, have it your way. Who do you want to kill, in return for sparing my friends and the human race?"

"The Draconian Emperor."

Hiffom froze.

Her eyes wide. Her hands trembling.

"Wait, that's it?!" Seo cried. She couldn't quite believe her luck. "Honestly? You kill the Emperor — some bloke I don't even know — and the human race gets off scott free?"

Hiffom grabbed Seo by the arm. "You can't!"

Seo shook Hiffom off. "I don't believe it for a second. It has to be a trick."

In a flash, the Glarnov weapon had dived in. And scooped up Hiffom, yet again. "Well, if you're not interested…"

"No!" Seo raised up her hands. "No, I never said that. Go ahead — have the Draconian Emperor. See if I care!"

Hiffom was released.

But stared at Seo as if she couldn't believe what she was hearing.

"We've got a deal?" the Glarnov weapon checked. Held out his hand to shake. "Weapon's honor?"

Seo strode forwards, and shook the hand.

"Weapon's honor," Seo said. "The Emperor's all yours."


	9. Chapter 9

"Whoa, whoa, wait!" Jack shouted, trying to step in and stop the police from smashing up all the mirrors. "Seven years bad luck aside — Seo's inside these mirrors! And I'm planning to get her out."

"The Earthwoman cannot possibly be inside a mirror," said Lord Nyin. "That would be scientifically impossible." He stroked his long, white beard. "She has been aiding and abetting criminals, to undermine Draconian customs and traditions. Therefore, she must be hiding somewhere in this lab. And we aim to find her."

"And what?" said Jack. "Arrest her? She's human, you know. Bet imprisoning her for doing science would go against your treaty with Earth — and none of you want another war anytime soon."

The Draconians all paused, at this.

"The Earthwoman must still be questioned," Lord Nyin replied. "To understand… if she had anything to do with subversive elements trying to destroy Draconian customs."

"She does not," Arasine replied. Her chin still held high, she wasn't about to let the fact she was arrested diminish her status as a Lady of Draconia. "She came here under my command, and remained here under my protection. You will not—!"

She was silenced, as a policeman smacked her up the head.

"Do not contradict your betters!" the policeman snapped. "You females and your stories and scare-mongering!"

Tileka cried out, indignantly.

And even Lord Nyin gave a sharp hiss at the officer who dared strike a lady.

"Uncalled for," Jack said, coldly.

"I agree," said Lord Nyin. He approached the officer in question, relieved him of duty. Another stepping into his place. "I will not see you mistreated in my custody, Lady Arasine," he said. "But I will make certain your sentence is merciless and just. A fitting way to punish the sex who brought Draconia to ruin."

"But we're telling you the truth!" said Tileka. "We really  _did_  find a way to project an image of the past! And the Earth-woman really  _did_ …!"

"And the more you say," said Lord Nyin, "the more you add to your crime." He turned to his policemen. "Destroy everything in this lab. Females like these make me sick."

Arasine roared, struggling with all her might against her captors. "I will not let you stop me!" she shouted. "I cannot allow this!"

"You have no choice," said Lord Nyin.

Jack kept himself between the police and the big mirrors. Didn't matter if they decided to kill him — he  _wasn't_ letting them smash up Seo's mirror. Not while she was stuck inside.

The mirror glowed.

A sudden bright light flashed through the secret lab. And… two people fell out of the mirror's surface, just beside Jack.

One, a Draconian woman. And the other, a tangle of arms and limbs and freckles…

"Seo!" Jack cried. Helping her to her feet, and looking her over to make sure she was all right. He cracked a grin. "Anyone ever told you not to jump into mirrors with the first person you meet?"

Seo was still panting, trying to catch her breath.

The others — Arasine and Tileka — both stared at Seo and the other Draconian. Sudden recognition coming into their eyes.

"Hiffom!" shouted Tileka. "How did we ever forget…?!"

"The Lady Seo was right," Arasine breathed. Staring at Seo as if… she couldn't quite believe that Seo had actually done this. "Right about everything. But that means… the mirror-man…"

"Yes, a mirror-man, my lady!" Hiffom confirmed. "A creature in the shape of a human, who talked about time and weapons and a race called the Glarnov, and who had—"

"There is no race called the Glarnov," said Lord Nyin. With the clap of his hands, police surrounded and restrained Hiffom. "You three must be silenced, before your superstitions and stories spread to the rest of the—"

"Not the shape of a human," Seo wheezed, through gasps. She leaned, heavily, on Jack. Trying to regain her balance and strength. "The shape of a Gallifreyan."

Jack snapped his head over to Seo. "What?!"

"The Glarnov Weapon," said Seo. "That's what it was designed to do. Eat up them and the Daleks during the Time War, or something — you'll have to ask Father." She managed to stand up on her own two feet, without Jack's help. "But it's broadened its appetite. Which means, if we don't get this machinery working, again, I'll never see the Glarnov weapon for long enough to…!"

Seo stopped.

As she looked around herself. At all the smashed up and broken machinery.

"Oh, no," Seo breathed.

Hiffom, for the first time, seemed to notice it as well. "All the machinery!" Hiffom said. Looking at Seo through terrified eyes. "But how could this…?!"

" _They_ destroyed it," Arasine hissed, glaring at the police around her.

"Women should not be working in 'labs'," Lord Nyin replied. "Any discovery made by these women is therefore invalid, and useless to Draconia. Their equipment did not deserve to be—"

"You idiot!" Seo shouted, surging at him. "Do you have any idea what you've just done? The Draconian Emperor is going to die! I gave up his life for the Earth!"

Jack couldn't stop her before she said it.

Neither could any of the Draconian women, nearby.

But they all knew, as soon as the words came out of her mouth… what it meant.

In no time at all, the Draconian police had surrounded and restrained Seo. "You are under arrest for your part in trying to assassinate the Draconian Emperor — a treasonable offense, even under the Earth treaty."

"What?!" Seo cried.

"She didn't mean it like that," Jack put in, quickly. "She meant that by smashing up the equipment, she wouldn't be able to save…" But found himself shoved away from her by two other Draconian policemen.

"You are wrong, Earthman," Hiffom said, in a sullen voice. "She said what she meant."

"Look, just let me talk to the Emperor!" Seo shouted. "There's something eating away your society, which nobody can see and no one can defeat — and I've got to at least warn him!"

Shocked gasps echoed across the room.

Jack buried his head in his hands. No idea how to even  _start_  getting Seo out of this one.

"What?" Seo went on, not sure why everyone was so shook up about this. "What's wrong with you people? Don't you understand?! There's a dangerous weapon on this planet, sucking Draconians out of… hey, cut that out!"

She was wrestled out the door by three Draconian policemen.

And Jack knew… nothing he could say would be enough to dig her out of this. After all, if he admitted she didn't know anything about Draconian customs… he'd basically be admitting she was too alien for the Earth treaty to cover her. And they'd get her for conspiracy and undermining their society.

And if she was covered by the Earth treaty… well, they could throw her in jail. But, hopefully, it'd take them a while to figure out what to do with her, after that.

"You know, if there really is some Time War weapon, destroying your society," Jack said to Lord Nyin, eyeing the lab, carefully, "maybe you shouldn't have smashed up all this..."

"The only thing destroying our society, Professor," said Lord Nyin, with a curt bow, "is fear and rumors spread by superstitious women and gossiping aliens." He turned, to head out of the room and follow the police.

* * *

A short time later, Seo was inside an interrogation chamber, shouting at a stony-faced Lord Nyin.

"I'm  _not_  making any of this up!" Seo insisted. "This Glarnov weapon is what's causing your society to fall apart. And now, it's going after your Emperor."

"Because you claim you gave up the Emperor's life," Lord Nyin replied, "in exchange for the lives of three Draconian females — and the entire human race."

Seo glared at him. "I'm not killing your Emperor. I was buying time!"

"But you admit that you made the exchange?"

"Yes!" Seo said. "I told you."

"But you see, Earth-woman Seo," said Lord Nyin, "that, in and of itself, is enough to condemn you. And break a number of inter-planetary treaties, at the same time."

He couldn't see many ways to make this  _not_  erupt into a massive interstellar war.

"Stop talking rubbish," Seo retorted. "I need to speak to the Emperor!"

"It is forbidden for females to speak in the presence of the Emperor," Lord Nyin replied. "And as an assassin, you'd certainly never be permitted anywhere near him."

Seo bunched her hands into fists. "Stop accusing me and  _think_  for a second," she said. "We're talking about a super-weapon that gets its kicks through brutal murder. So why would it be willing to surrender an entire planet so it could eat one person?"

"Our Emperor," Lord Nyin corrected.

"The Glarnov weapon doesn't give two figs that he's your Emperor!" Seo dismissed. "No. The weapon wanted me to make that deal for some other reason, all together." She knitted her brows together. "And if I wanted to find out what… I had to play ball."

She had some theories, of course.

But nothing definite.

Lord Nyin sighed. "Your story is obviously a fabrication," he said. "But I believe you when you say that the technology in that lab placed the Emperor's life at risk. If you would cease your ridiculous claims about time wars and sentient super-weapons, we could uncover the truth about this… conspiracy."

"The technology in that lab didn't cause anything!" Seo insisted. "It just allowed me to see something that had been invisible since…"

Seo stopped herself, suddenly.

As something clicked in her mind, all at once. And everything made a lot more sense.

"You want me to confess that the instruments in that lab were dangerous," Seo realized. "No — more than that. You want me to say they endangered the Emperor! Because that way, you can put all those Draconian women to death and prove that women should know their place."

Lord Nyin didn't deny this.

Nor did he confirm it.

"So what if I tell you they've nothing to do with this?" Seo challenged. "Because  _that's_  the truth!"

"I think you do not understand, Earth-woman," Lord Nyin told her, coldly, "what is at stake, if you do not tell the truth. You have already admitted that you forfeited the Emperor's life to spare the human race. That's a flagrant violation of the treaty between Draconia and Earth."

Seo frowned.

"If you supply us with information to condemn the women who set up that lab," Lord Nyin continued, "the Emperor would acknowledge that your help in this affair might be enough to redeem Earth's honor in the treaty. However, if you do not… if the threat against his Majesty was simply perpetrated by you, and you alone… then this is an act of war."

"War?!" Seo cried.

"Many Earthmen would die in such a war," Lord Nyin told her. "I know you wish to protect your co-conspirators, but… is it worth the lives of your fellow humans?"

For a few moments, Seo couldn't speak.

As this all sank in.

This had to be what the Glarnov weapon wanted. Instead of killing the planets one person at a time, this would allow it mass carnage. For both Draconia and Earth.

Unless…

"So I'll ask you, again, human," said Lord Nyin. "What part did those Draconians play in…?"

"I'm not human," Seo cut in. Playing her only card. "Not from Earth."

Lord Nyin fell silent.

No idea what to say — or how to react — to this.

"Seosyrae Summers," Seo told him. "Check my name against Earth records. I'm not there."

"I… don't believe you," Lord Nyin insisted. "You look human."

"Get a stethoscope and see for yourself," Seo snapped. Shook her head. "I'm not acting on behalf of Earth. They don't even know about me. I'm a free agent."

"You said you forfeited the Emperor's life for Earth," said Lord Nyin. "If you have no connection to it, why would you…?"

"Does it matter?" Seo cut in. Sighed. "Use your imagination. Maybe I'm an assassin, trying to get someone on Earth. Maybe I'm a smuggler and don't want your war to interrupt my trade routes. Or maybe I noticed there are a lot of hellmouths on Earth, and figured… since I failed to blow up the universe last week, I could always try again!"

Lord Nyin narrowed his eyes at her.

Coldly.

"It is not wise to jest," said Lord Nyin. "In Draconia, all jokes will be taken as fact."

Seo shrugged. "I'm sure you'll find some way to shoot me for this, Lord Nyin," she said. She got up from her seat, at the interrogation table. "Don't make me feed you lines. I've had a bad enough week as it is."

With a wave of his hand, the police stepped forwards to clap Seo in restraints.

"No, not back to her cell," Lord Nyin said, before they could lead her away. "Send her to Dr. Elfitz. Full medical scans and complete diagnostics. Whatever she is… we'll know shortly."

"I doubt it," Seo muttered, as she was escorted from the room.


	10. Chapter 10

Several hours later… Lord Nyin was stumped.

"No species," Nyin said, analyzing the results. Shook his head. "No scans!"

"Forgive me, honorable Lord," said Dr. Elfitz. "We've tried everything. Machines… simply… won't read her."

This was all Lord Nyin needed.

"She certainly isn't human, though," said Dr. Elfitz. "That's clear. She has two hearts. And the wrong body temperature. And her mind…!"

"I don't need evidence confirming her story," Lord Nyin cut in. "It's obviously a fraud. What I need to know is some bargaining chip I can use to cause the Lady Arasine's execution!"

Dr. Elfitz didn't have a good answer to this.

Faltered, in place.

"Well, if you can't give me that," said Lord Nyin, "then tell me: why does this… Seo… want to save Earth?"

"I… think… some things she said… led me to believe…" Elfitz hesitated. "I think she's a Cyberplanner. Under cover."

Lord Nyin did a double take.

Hadn't expected this.

"She speaks like one, at times," said Elfitz. "The few bits of her mind that machines can read are Cyberplanner, through and through. And it would explain why she wants the human race alive."

"So she can Cyber-convert them," said Lord Nyin. "And perhaps us, as well."

Elfitz nodded.

"Then we'll have to kill her," said Lord Nyin. "That much is clear." Standing up at his desk. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to confer with a… colleague of mine. This could very well change everything."

* * *

When Seo was finally done with the long and humiliating medical tests, now thoroughly drained and worn out, she found herself hauled out of the med lab and dragged back to her cell.

Where Arasine, Hiffom, and Tileka were waiting for her.

Their faces hard.

Evidently, Hiffom had told them everything before Seo ever arrived. And they looked about as happy with it as everyone else had.

"You think I'm trying to kill the Emperor, too, now?" Seo slumped against the nearest wall, stone hard and cold against her back. "Just give me a minute to catch my breath. And I'll explain…"

Arasine flew at Seo.

Belting her with a loud SMACK across the face.

Seo actually had to catch herself. Stared at Arasine, stunned.

"Traitor," Arasine hissed at Seo. Raising her hand to strike again. "Murderer! After the trust I bestowed in you, this is how you choose to repay me!"

Seo barely managed to dodge out of the way of the next blow.

Tileka raced out, to hold Arasine back. Funny thing was… she and Hiffom seemed just as surprised as Seo was. Sure, Seo had seen Arasine wound up, before. But the way Arasine was fighting back, the anger she felt towards Seo…

This was a deep, passionate anger.

The kind she only got when talking about her experiments.

Which only made sense if… if...

"It's  _you_ ," Seo realized. "Has to be. Of course! The weapon knew your name."

Tileka and Hiffom looked at one another, confused.

"No, you!" Seo said, pointing at Arasine. "The Glarnov weapon said he was playing a game. He's playing it with you, Arasine!  _You're_  his target!"

"That's Lady Arasine, to you!" Arasine spat. "And if you think I will defend your honor, you're wrong. I would gladly execute you myself for your crimes, if it were seemly for a female to do so."

"No, wait!" Seo said, holding up a hand, face bent in thought. "Give me a chance to think this through." Her lips formed a thin line, mind racing. "Arasine. The only noblewoman on Draconia to study. The one who came up with the theory behind that machine! And all around you — people keep getting taken. Research assistants. Scientists. Professors. Friends! But always people in your line of research. People you know."

She looked at Arasine, more carefully.

"Who are you, Arasine?" Seo asked. Then, "No, actually. Who  _were_ you?"

Arasine went still. "I beg your pardon?"

"Right now, you're a scientist," said Seo. "But women were only allowed to learn because the Glarnov weapon kept taking people out of time — thus causing a near societal collapse. Which only began after the Glarnov weapon arrived. So… what were you before the Glarnov weapon arrived and time changed? When this all started? What was Draconia like?"

"I do not follow," Arasine said.

"Dimensions of time!" Seo spread open her arms. "Layers upon layers of changes happening, one after another after another. Someone small gets taken — a shopkeeper, or a housewife — and maybe you don't notice. But if someone big and important gets snatched into the mirror universe… maybe that changes things a little more. Time has to shift more events, change more history, can't quite get its ducks in a row… because the Glarnov weapon is slowly draining away that person's timeline and by the time the weapon's done… that person will have never existed, at all, anymore."

They all looked at one another.

"You mean that every time someone goes to the mirror universe," said Hiffom, digesting this, "our world changes. And when they die in that mirror universe… the change becomes permanent."

"Yes," Seo agreed. "That's it, exactly."

"And the things that don't make sense, in our world," Tileka realized, "the facts founded upon nothing… they're…!"

"Theories from people who are in the mirror dimension, but haven't died, yet," Seo agreed. "Exactly." She paced the cell, eyes glued to the floor. "And the Emperor is a big person. Get him into that mirror dimension…"

"And everything he's ever done will be undone," said Hiffom. Her face went even paler, as she thought through all the implications of this. "It will be as though… we've never had an Emperor!"

"But that will make Draconia unrecognizable," said Tileka. "We can't let it happen."

Seo looked up. "I think," she replied, "it already has."

Everyone in the room went suddenly very still. And very quiet.

"Does Draconia have a crowned prince?" Seo asked.

"Yes," Tileka said, while, at the same time, Hiffom said, "No."

They both looked at one another.

Hesitated.

"The Glarnov weapon," Arasine said, looking them both over, "took the crowned prince. Didn't it? But it hasn't completely killed him, yet." She gestured at Tileka and Hiffom. "That's why they're both so confused."

"It took a lot more than that," said Seo. She looked right at Arasine. "Didn't it?"

Arasine shook her head. "I don't know what…"

The door clattered open, and the prisoners found themselves confronted by a procession of armed guards. And one with several bowls of a substance that looked slightly like lumpy porridge. But with the wrong consistency.

Arasine spun to face the guards. Anger on her face. "You'd feed me Hilsotoch Wynolg? Like a peasant?!" She pointed to it. "I wouldn't feed this to my pet!"

The guard with the food smirked. "Get used to it,  _my lady_ ," he jibed — in a low enough voice that any listening noble couldn't hear. "All you're getting, now."

The guards closest scolded him for his disrespect — but they sounded pretty half-hearted. Seemed commoners like them were generally pretty amused that they could finally act superior and disrespectful to a Lady of Draconia.

One of the other guards cleared his throat. Then fixed his eyes on Seo. "Lord Nyin wished me to inform you," he said, "that you have been sentenced to be executed at dawn. Unless, of course, you have anything further to say…"

Seo gave a long, mirthless sigh. "…to incriminate the others, so I can go free," she said. "I've heard it all before. Can't say I wasn't expecting this."

He waited for her reply.

Although he clearly felt repulsed, just looking at her.

"You tell your Lord Nyin that he's lucky I feel so weak after unlocking that mirror dimension," Seo said. Crossed her arms. "Because I might be just a girl. But I could rip him in two soon as look at him, if I wanted."

The guards all turned away, shaking their heads.

Not believing a word.

Then closed and locked the cell door.

Seo sunk down to the floor, with a heavy sigh. "Brilliant," she muttered, hands around her knees. "Execution at dawn." She paused, her eyes unfocused, her mind deep in thought. "I wonder… if that would fix things. Maybe I want to die. New regeneration and all that."

Then she realized everyone was staring at her.

Words failing all of them.

"Oh, don't look at me like that," Seo said. She grabbed up one of the bowls, trying to think how she was going to manage to eat something that yucky-looking. "I'm just thinking aloud, here." She scooped a spoonful into her mouth, and almost choked on it. "They might actually kill me for good, after all. And that'd be rubbish."

"You… did not speak out against us?" Arasine said, in a low voice.

Seo looked up.

It was the first time she understood… that every single person in that cell had assumed Seo had done exactly that. Thought she'd tried to point the finger of blame at anyone she could, in order to get out of her mess.

"I saved Hiffom," Seo said. "I played that Glarnov weapon's game so he would spare all your lives! I've been nothing but supportive of you since this whole thing began." She shook her head. "You really think I'd…?"

"But you're an alien," said Tileka. She looked away, slightly embarrassed. "Aliens have a reputation for being selfish and dishonorable."

"You gave up the Emperor's life," Hiffom added. "As if it meant nothing."

Seo put the bowl down. Meeting their eyes with her own. "I'm one of the good guys," she said. "I have to be. I'm saving Draconia."

For a few moments, no one said anything.

"But the Emperor  _is_  Draconia," said Arasine, in a very soft voice. Her eyes met Seo's, evenly. "Don't you see?"

Seo hit her hand against her head. "For the last time, I'm not going to assassinate your Emperor! I just need to warn him…!"

"Because only you, an alien, can save him?" Arasine asked. "Because he faces a threat he cannot handle?" She shook her head. "But he is Draconia, Seo. To say he cannot handle something a mere human can… is to say Draconia must be subservient to alien empires."

Seo blinked. "I'm sorry?"

"To insist on speaking to the Emperor… is to imply he requires council from an alien," Tileka added. "As if Draconians were simple, compared to other aliens."

"His life is more than the lives of every other Draconian on this planet," Hiffom concluded. "His blood is Draconia's blood, his courage Draconia's courage, his honor our honor."

Seo snapped her head around to Arasine.

Said nothing.

Just stared, for a long time. And thought. Hard.


	11. Chapter 11

"You can't do this," Jack insisted.

Lord Nyin turned a sharp eye on Jack. Gave him a little bow. "With all due respect, Earthman… we can. And we must."

"We have classified her as an enemy of both Earth and Draconia," the Honorable Flascarf added, not far off. He handed Jack the report that showed Dr. Elfitz's findings, along with his own searches into Seo's past. "As an esteemed Professor of both cybernetics and galactic history, I have confirmed the findings that she is a carrier of cyber-technology."

"I have spoken with the Earth Ambassador," Lord Nyin went on. "He checked in the latest Earth census, and found no trace of her. It was agreed that there would be no diplomatic repercussions, on the condition that the alien female was executed as soon as possible."

Jack flipped through the report.

Swore, beneath his breath.

"Cyberplanner," he muttered. "Should have known that'd come back to bite us in the ass."

"You do not deny the findings, then?" said Lord Nyin.

Jack flung the report down on Lord Nyin's desk. "Look, I dunno how familiar you are with Cybermen," he said, "but they're usually big, heavy metal things. Seo doesn't look like that."

"That is true of most Cybermen," the Honorable Flascarf confirmed. "But the Cyberplanner is an exception, Earthman. Particularly in the early stages of upgrade… the Cyberplanner can seem perfectly ordinary."

"Doesn't sound ordinary, though," Jack replied.

The Honorable Flascarf coughed, pointedly. "Neither did she."

Damn.

He'd skimmed through that report. Read the reports of what Seo had said, during the med-scan. And they did sound unusually Cyberplanner for her.

Damn, damn, damn.

"We do apologize, honorable Earthman," said the Honorable Flascarf, with another bow. "Although you seek the glory of this capture for yourself, we hope you understand — for diplomatic reasons, she must be executed on Draconian soil. There is no alternative."

"Glory of this…?" Jack paused. As something occurred to him. "Hang on. You guys don't think I'm a professor, anymore."

The Honorable Flascarf and Lord Nyin exchanged a glance.

"You got the Earth Ambassador to look me up, too, huh?" Jack cried. "Just to make sure I was really a citizen of the Earth Empire."

"We apologize, honorable Harkness," said Lord Nyin. "We meant no dishonor. We just wanted to be thorough."

That was the thing about living forever. You were always bound to be around somewhere, whatever time period you happened to be visiting.

From the looks on Lord Nyin and the Honorable Flascarf's faces, though, Jack was guessing this future-him was employed by some other top-secret agency. Guessed that the Earth Ambassador had told Lord Nyin that Jack existed, Draconia couldn't touch him… and that was it.

No wonder they thought Jack had been taking Seo to Earth as his prisoner.

Maybe he could use this to his advantage.

"Listen," Jack said — stepping up to get right into Lord Nyin's face. "If you know who I am, you know — I've got things I know that I can't tell anyone about. Not even you." He pointed in the direction of the cells. "You know there's something different about her. She could walk through mirrors. She didn't show up on med-scans. That's not normal Cyberplanner behavior, is it?"

The Honorable Flascarf faltered.

But didn't deny it.

"I've got her under my protection for a reason," said Jack. "Can't get into why, or what she is, or what it means. But I can't let you execute her."

Lord Nyin gave a weary sigh. "Honorable Earthman," he said, with a slow shake of his head, "it is not that simple. She has admitted, several times, that she forfeited the Draconian Emperor's life for the Earth. If you and your… associates… do not condemn this action fully, then it will be mean war between Draconia and—"

"Yeah?" Jack said, evenly. "And you worked all this out with the Earth Ambassador yourself? Thought that was the Emperor's job."

Lord Nyin said nothing.

"He doesn't know anything about this, huh?" Jack guessed. "You've gone and done a deal behind his back! Why's that? Got ambitions of your own, Nyin?"

"He does not need the current Emperor's permission to negotiate," said another, much younger Draconian, stepping into the room. He was more ornately attired than the others, with two swords at his side. "He has mine."

Lord Nyin and the Honorable Flascarf turned and bowed, deeply, to the newcomer. Lord Nyin even got down on one knee, before him.

"Crowned Prince?" Jack asked.

From talking to the locals, he'd just assumed Draconia didn't have a Crowned Prince. But the way this guy was looking down his nose at Jack — as if personally affronted at having to confront an alien, and one who didn't show the proper respect for one of his rank — Jack figured maybe he was wrong.

"The Emperor is weak," said the Draconian. "A tired old man, who has led Draconia to the brink of destruction!" He withdrew one of his swords, and with the flick of his wrist, held the blade by Jack's throat. "Kneel before me, alien. There will soon be a new Emperor of Draconia. Emperor Mazenku."

Jack couldn't believe his ears.

Here they were, about to put Seo to death for plotting to kill the Emperor, and all the while…!

No. Actually, hang on. This was all starting to make sense, now.

"You're not executing her for wanting to kill the Emperor," Jack said. "You think she's figured out your plan. You're executing her because she wants to save him!"

"She has gained the confidence of the Lady Arasine," said Lord Mazenku. He spat on the ground, at the name. "That traitor to Draconian heritage! That inquisitive, un-feminine… concubine!" He spat again, just for good measure. "Secret 'lab'. It's clear what that means."

"It is?" Jack muttered.

"A female would never have the intelligence to do real science!" said Lord Mazenku. "She's been using her studies as a cover, to spy on me. Discover my plans!"

"We offered this… 'Seo' of yours… a pardon," said Lord Nyin, "on the condition that she denounced the Lady Arasine."

"But she didn't take the bait? Sounds about right." Jack felt the blade pressing into his neck. "Gonna execute me too, now?"

Lord Mazenku's eyes flared. He kicked at Jack, forcing him to his knees. Keeping the sword at his throat the whole time.

"You claim to protect the girl," said Lord Mazenku. "Perhaps you are even fond of her. Very well." He took the sword away. "You may both live, Earthman. So long as you tell our Cybernetics expert, the Honorable Flascarf, how to operate on her mind — to force her to do our bidding."

Jack went very still, at this.

His eyes flicking over to the Honorable Flascarf, who looked down, in shame.

"Again," Jack said, not quite believing it. "After everything we went through, trying to stop her last time… and now you're trying to start it up all over again?!"

"Earthman, you would be wise to assist the Lord Mazenku in any way…" Lord Nyin proposed.

Jack jumped to his feet. "Listen, your hoping-to-be majesty," he said. "Last time this happened, Seo flipped out. Killed everyone who'd hurt her — then nearly destroyed the universe in a fit of rage!"

"Is this how Earth-men lie?" Lord Nyin pondered.

Jack had known that one'd be a hard sell. "Okay, forget that," he said. "How about this Glarnov weapon? Because — dunno if anyone's clued you in, yet — but your civilization's being eaten up by an invisible monster that only Seo can see. If I were you… I'd put all this politics aside and let her go hunt the thing down!"

"And why would I want to do that?" said Lord Mazenku. He shrugged. "If her story is a lie, then it means Seo wishes to foil my plans — and must be either reprogrammed, or killed. If it is true… then I welcome this Glarnov Weapon. It seeks the same goal as I."

"It doesn't, you know," Jack warned him. "It really, really doesn't."

Lord Mazenku flicked his sword up to its previous spot, beside Jack's neck. Eyes narrowed.

"Go ahead! Kill me!" Jack replied. "But if I'm right and you're wrong… what's gonna happen when the Glarnov weapon comes for you?"

Lord Mazenku hesitated.

"My honorable Lord," the Honorable Flascarf cut in, kneeling before Lord Mazenku. He kissed Mazenku's hand. "Emperor soon-to-be, my life at your command! Would it not be wiser to keep the Earthman alive? Dead, Earth would demand an explanation. Alive… we could frame him for conspiracy, after the deed was done. You could demand his execution, to preserve your honor."

Lord Mazenku thought a long moment.

Then dropped his sword. "Very well," he decided. "Lock him up with the others. And redouble the number of guards on patrol around the perimeter of the cell. If there is any hint of an escape plan… I want them all executed immediately."

"So… no killing, then," Jack muttered, as he was handcuffed and led away. "Great. So much for Plan A."

* * *

Lord Mazenku watched through narrowed eyes, as Jack was led away.

"That Earthman makes me… uneasy," said Lord Mazenku, sheathing his sword. "He speaks as if Seo's story is true. And these… Glarnov, super-weapons, mirror-dimensions, and time… what did she call them?"

"Time Lords, my honorable Lord," said the Honorable Flascarf.

"…'Time Lords' really exist," said Lord Mazenku. He stroked his beard, again. "Yet… it cannot be. How can one lord over time itself? Preposterous."

"Preposterous, my lord," Lord Nyin agreed.

"Still…" Lord Mazenku turned to the Honorable Flascarf. "Don't cut that 'Seo' open. Find some way to coerce the Earthman Jack into assassinating the Emperor, instead. We'll frame him." He spun around, marched out of the room. "If this Glarnov weapon does exist… I may need her."


	12. Chapter 12

 

Everyone stared, in surprise, as Jack was thrown into the cell.

Door slamming shut, behind him.

"Heard you were having a party and didn't invite me," Jack said. Winked at the Draconians. "And one with lots of lovely ladies."

Tileka blushed.

"Brilliant! You're here!" Seo said, jumping to her feet and racing over. "We can just use your vortex manipulator to teleport…"

She stopped, as she noticed Jack's bare wrist.

"Sorry," Jack said, with a shrug. "They took it off me before I could get in here. Thorough strip-search." The grin widened. "And I mean  _thorough_."

An even bigger blush from Tileka.

"Right," Seo said. Crossed her arms. "Well, I'm at half-strength, at the moment. So no forcing the bars. The Emperor's about to be killed, and unless those Draconian bigots outside will believe me, I won't be able to stop it. So…!"

"Oh, they definitely believe you're out to save the Emperor," Jack put in. "Problem is… Lord Mazenku wants the Emperor dead."

Arasine met Jack's eyes with her own. "Lord Mazenku?"

"Yep." Jack tucked his thumbs under his suspenders. "That's why everyone's so eager to get Seo to denounce you, Arasine. He seems to think you're going to rat him out."

"He's tried this once before," Arasine muttered. "I stopped him, then. He has hated me ever since — shamed that a noble of his rank was bested in a swordfight by a mere female."

Seo quirked an eyebrow. "When?"

Arasine opened her mouth to reply.

Then… hesitated.

"Never. It must not have…" Arasine put a hand to her head. "Yet I thought it had. Which means it did happen — but was forgotten, due to the Glarnov weapon."

"A snippet from your old life," Seo agreed. "From before the Glarnov weapon ever turned up."

Then Seo stopped.

Her eyes illuminating, suddenly.

"The Glarnov," Seo repeated. "Ha! That's it!" Turned to the others, a smile springing to her lips. "Does anybody have a mirror? Anything reflective and shiny at all?"

Tileka and Hiffom looked at one another. Then back at Seo, both shaking their heads.

"Strip-search," said Jack. "Remember?"

Seo turned to Arasine. Her last desperate hope.

Arasine stepped forwards, to check the door. Make sure no one was overhearing, or looking in on them. Then reached up her sleeve, and withdrew the small hand-mirror from their experiment.

"They searched us all," said Arasine. Handing it to Seo. "But not even they would dare disrobe a Lady of Draconia."

"Oh, this is…!" Seo grabbed it up, nearly jumping in excitement. "Better than I could ever have hoped! Brilliant, Arasine! Just brilliant!"

Jack shushed her. Glancing over his shoulder.

"Those guards have orders to kill us all, if we try to escape," he whispered. "So whatever the plan is… you better do it, now."

Seo focused all her energy on the mirror. "When I was a little girl," she muttered, feeling around for the dimensional lock, "I was told a story about a handful of Glarnov survivors — whom this Glarnov weapon had failed to wipe out. They used his mirror dimension as an escape route to exit the Time War."

There.

She felt the lock click open.

"So it must be theoretically possible to use the mirror dimension to escape here," Seo said. She felt dizzy and short of breath, as the door to the dimension opened before them. Gestured at the others. "Care to step inside?"

Arasine hesitated. "If… you claim this weapon has some obsession with me," she checked, "will this be entirely safe?"

A sudden shout from outside, and they heard the key turn in the lock to their cell.

"Safer than staying here," said Jack, grabbing her by the arms and yanking her along with him. "Better hurry it up!"

* * *

Tileka and Arasine shuddered, as they looked at the mirror dimension around them. A strange, old-timey mirror version of the cell they were just in.

But this one had the door open.

"Something about it feels… like… the past," said Tileka. "But… it's wrong, somehow."

Jack and Seo exchanged a look.

As two people who knew what stepping into the past actually felt like, they knew — this was nothing like it.

Arasine pushed forwards. Her stride purposeful and eyes fixed straight ahead. "The sooner we get out of this prison, the sooner we can leave this miserable place," she said. "We must go."

There was no arguing with her.

As everyone raced to catch up.

"Are you all right, my Lady?" Hiffom asked. Glancing back to Seo and thinking… of what she'd told them all. In the cell.

Arasine didn't answer.

Simply went even faster, as they marched out of the cell.

Tileka shuddering every time they passed by those faceless forms still going about their routines. Some looked like ghosts — so little of them left, they could no longer even touch.

"These are the people we've forgotten?" Tileka asked. "But… there are so many…!"

"These are just the ones the Glarnov weapon hasn't finished with, yet," said Seo, through her teeth. "That's what weapons do — they eat through personalities and leave you with nothing."

They passed through the outer doors to the prison, and into the daylight.

"Just grief," Seo said. "Loss. Anger."

"That experience talking?" came a sly voice.

They all turned, and saw the human-looking figure standing just beside them. Arms crossed. An evil grin on his face.

His eyes lit up when he noticed Arasine.

"Oh, and you brought me a present!" said the Glarnov weapon. "I'm touched. Really."

Arasine turned on him.

Eyes flashing.

"I have no time for you," she snapped. Pointed at him. "You will surrender your claim on the Emperor's life, at once! That is an order."

Jack whistled. "Wow. Lady who knows who's boss."

The Glarnov weapon snuck forwards. "Oh, do I scare you — Arasine? You get little lonely nightmares about me, without knowing why?" He reached out for her — and Arasine, as if in a trance, reached out for the weapon. "I know what you want. Come with me… and I can give him back."

Seo gritted her teeth, and poured her energy into the mirror she still clutched in her hand.

The Glarnov weapon cried out, as an invisible force drove him back.

"You will not kill my friends," Seo panted, glaring at the Glarnov weapon. "And you don't touch Arasine."

The Glarnov weapon picked himself up off the ground. Tilting his head, as he examined Seo. "You've worked it out, haven't you?" he asked. "You know what my game really is."

"She's won; you've lost," Seo said, gulping in air. "Give it up."

"I haven't lost — I just need to peel away more people from her old life," the Glarnov weapon replied. "I'll win, eventually. Even if I have to kill every last person on this planet — I  _will_  beat her."

"I beg your pardon?" Arasine looked between Seo and the Glarnov weapon. "Are either of you going to tell me what you're both…?" She paused. Then shook her head, and struck out, again. "No, on second thought. I don't care in the slightest. I have to go."

Seo stumbled after her.

But tripped, and nearly fell — if Jack hadn't caught her.

"Arasine, wait," Jack called. Put an arm around Seo's shoulders. "You okay, kid?"

"Well, of course she's not okay!" the Glarnov weapon rolled its eyes. "She's got a mirror that she shouldn't, technically, have been able to take along with her. And is using it to do something that shouldn't be physically possible in this dimension. Wanna guess how much energy that's taking?"

Jack's grip tightened around Seo.

Her breath coming short.

"That's all she is, you know," said the Glarnov weapon. "Green glowing energy that some monks decided to craft into a weapon." He crossed his arms. "Turns out, Seo — I don't need to pull you out of time to kill you. Just have to wait here… and you'll do it yourself." He met her eyes with his. "And you better believe there won't be any regenerations after that, darling."

Seo hesitated.

The shield dropping, a little.

"Oh, goody-goody," said the Glarnov weapon, rubbing his hands. "Now. Who do I get to eat, first?"

Jack scooped Seo up into his arms. "Run!" he shouted to the others, as he raced off into the distance.

Arasine and her friends didn't have to be told twice.

They ran like their lives depended on it. Ran through empty streets filled with specters of people and forgotten memories. Ran back towards the Imperial Gardens…

"Sorry, gorgeous," said Jack to Arasine, as he headed her off in the opposite direction. "We're going this-a-way."

"To Oliver," Seo said, with a little smile. "I can hear him in my head."

And it was clear that the mental link was doing more than just singing. A splash of color had come back into Seo's cheeks. Her skin seemed a little less pale. Her breath came more easily.

"You know, if this place was built to get rid of Time Lords," said Jack, "I really didn't think a symbiotic link would work, here."

"As Father never tires of pointing out," Seo replied, her eyes closing, "I'm not a Time Lord."

Arasine stumbled at the words. But caught herself. "Time Lord," she repeated. Staring at Seo. "But that's… impossible. It can't…!"

Tileka grabbed Arasine by the arm and yanked her forwards. "My lady, the weapon's right behind us!" she cried. "We must go faster!"

"Almost there!" said Jack, as he raced up the hill where they'd left Oliver. Glanced down at Seo. "Got enough strength to magic us a way out of here?"

Seo squeezed her eyes shut.

Pouring her energy back into that mirror… and feeling the dimension unlock…

"If you leave, Arasine," the Glarnov weapon warned, "you'll never find him, again. I'll erase everyone around you — until you're content and happy, not knowing anything about what you lost!"

Arasine hesitated.

Turned back.

But Hiffom and Tileka grabbed her by both arms, and yanked her through the portal. And back into the real world.

Right beside a tall glass pillar.

"Unhand me!" Arasine demanded, shaking the others off of her. Then sprung back at the rapidly disappearing doorway, inside of the hand-mirror. "I must return! I must…!"

But it was too late.

The mirror was a mirror, once more.

Dangling, limply, in Seo's hands. As Jack shoved open the doors to the glass pillar, and carried her inside.

Arasine didn't follow.

Her mind far away, as she stayed staring at the spot where the doorway had once been.

"My lady?" Hiffom asked.

"That weapon… took someone away from me," said Arasine. "Someone… I kept wanting to get back to. Even if I never remembered, I still knew I'd invent any new theory, break every boundary of science, travel any distance — if I could only…"

She trailed off.

The hints of a tear in her eyes.

"I have no recollection of who that is," said Arasine. "Someone that important, and… there isn't even a face in my mind that I can picture."

Hiffom opened her mouth to reply. But suddenly gasped. Pointing inside the glass pillar, clearly distracted.

"But I know the Glarnov weapon's game, now," Arasine sighed. "He wants to know how many Draconians he needs to erase… before I stop trying to get back the person I lost."

She turned.

And noticed Hiffom wasn't there, anymore.

"Hiffom, what are you…?" Arasine snapped, turning around.

That was when she spotted Hiffom, racing inside the glass pillar. "Impossible!" Hiffom was shouting. "It's bigger on the inside!"

* * *

Seo was clearly doing much better. Had been getting her strength back, steadily, since she set foot inside the ship.

"Bigger on the inside… in moderation," Seo said to Hiffom and Tileka, who were gawping at the size of the ship. Seo placed both hands on the console, borrowing its stored-up rift energy and feeling a pleasant little glow inside of her — like warming her hands by a fireplace. "Blokes always like everything bigger, bigger, bigger, in all dimensions — but I'm happy with it just being very tall."

"I thought it was supposed to be blue," said Arasine, in the doorway.

Seo and Jack both turned, staring at her.

"I'm sorry?" said Seo.

"Or so the legends say," Arasine replied. She stepped inside, trying to mask her wonder under the same in-control certainty she'd always worn… but something still seeped through. "You know, when you claimed your father was a Lord… I assumed you were referring to Earth. I never thought you were related to a Lord of Draconia." She gave Seo a small bow. "Lady Seo."

Jack frowned.

Turned to Seo, who looked like she had no idea what to say to this.

"You know," Jack pointed out, "that Mazenku guy had no idea what a Time Lord was. But Arasine, here, recognized the term right away. And if she knows all about the—"

Seo brushed past Jack.

"I'm sorry," said Seo. "Did you just say… a Lord of  _Draconia_?" She gestured at herself. "No brownish skin. No little bumps on my head. And only two hearts!" She shook her head. "Not a Draconian."

"There is… a secret, on Draconia," said Arasine. "Only known to a select few. The one alien who has become a noble of Draconia — because of the many times he's saved this world. It's said he appears from nowhere in a blue box, bigger inside than…"

"Yes, right, got that," Seo said. Brushing the thought away, with a wave of her hand. "So… if Father's a Lord of Draconia… what does that buy me? Speaking-rights to the Emperor? A way into the palace, at least?"

Arasine hesitated.

Then, a little sheepishly, shook her head.

"No female may ever speak to the Emperor," said Arasine, "on pain of death."

"Being married to him must be a barrel of laughs," Seo muttered. Crossed her arms, her head bent, eyes fixed on the floor. "Right. So… just to clarify. There are at least two massive conspiracies out there, trying to kill the Emperor. We know about both of them. But we can't warn him, because we're all women."

Jack cleared his throat.

She looked up. Remembered him.

And suddenly smiled.


	13. Chapter 13

"This isn't going to work," Tileka muttered, as Seo raced up and down the stairs, shoving lenses and equipment at the two of them.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the ship, Arasine was teaching Jack proper court etiquette around the Emperor.

"…my life at your command," Jack repeated, practicing the ritual. Then, with a little grin, "Hey, if he's good-looking, he can have more than just my life."

Arasine shot him a deadly glare. "I've said it fourteen times," she said, "and I will continue to repeat it until you understand. It is the severest disrespect to imply that you desire to fornicate with the Emperor!"

Tileka shook her head, as she was handed another box from upstairs. And set it down beside the console.

"He does seem to be learning," Hiffom put in, hopefully.

"He'll still never make it into the palace," said Tileka. "He's an alien! He'll need a rigorous background check before he can go anywhere near the Emperor — and the background checks are all done by Lord Nyin!"

Seo emerged at the top of the spiral staircase, hauling down the box-full of equipment. "Everything going all right, down there?"

"As well as can be expected," said Arasine, calmly. "But if he does not cease implying that he would gladly sleep with either myself or the Emperor — I may have to resort to violence."

Seo plonked the box down onto the floor. "Well, that's all right," she said. "Just kill him outside — or the blood will get all over the floor in here and make a mess."

Tileka and Hiffom exchanged a look.

Arasine seemed slightly horrified, as well.

"Yeah… Draconians don't do 'jokes'," Jack reminded Seo.

"Who said it was a joke?" Seo replied. "My floors don't clean themselves, you know." She began to dig through boxes. "You've got a bit more time to brush up on etiquette — I haven't found the thingy yet."

Arasine sighed.

Then gestured for Jack to follow her out of the ship. "I need to show you where you'll be heading," she said. "It's most important that you do  _not_  go immediately to the palace. Lord Nyin does the background checks, and he will never let you inside."

"Gotcha," said Jack, following her out of the ship.

Remarkably, this was followed by no sounds of Arasine strangling or killing Jack. Just quiet talking. Which Seo felt was a good sign.

"It's still not going to work," Tileka muttered.

"Why not?" asked Seo. She finally grabbed something out of the box, and grinned at it. Spinning the top so that it buzzed into life for just a minute. "There you are! The thingy!" She pressed a button on its side, and it closed up into a ball. Then turned back to Tileka. "Look, it's simple. We build a mockup of your equipment on-board my ship. Jack takes the thingy into the palace, and watches over the Emperor."

"That thingy," Hiffom checked, pointing.

"Yep," Seo replied, with a smile. "When we're ready, we dematerialize. Jack turns on the thingy. And first sign of any dimensional breaches… and we swoop right in and materialize inside the throne room."

"Which you claim your ship can do easily," said Tileka.

"It's Jack!" said Seo, with a shrug. "Jack's easy to home in on. And the thingy will use the breach to give us the temporal coordinates… so what more do we need?"

"This is assuming that Jack can get inside the palace," said Tileka. "And can manage to gain an audience with the Emperor."

Seo's eyes twinkled. "Yes, well. I don't think that will be a problem."

* * *

Lord Mazenku was beyond furious, when he found out the news.

"The Earthman?!" Mazenku cried. "You let the Earthman into the palace?!"

"I had no choice!" Lord Nyin replied, kneeling before Mazenku. "My honorable lord, please forgive my failure. I attempted to do everything you said — to arrest him and lead him elsewhere — but he had already shared words with Lord Shelik. Some… code. The Emperor gave special commands to let the Earthman in."

"Code?" Mazenku seethed.

"Something about a doctor… tarnis…" Lord Nyin looked a little sheepish. "It meant nothing to me."

"Nor to me," said Mazenku. "But Lord Shelik is Arasine's father. If he has spoken to the Earthman, then our plot has been discovered. We must kill them both — before they ever arrive at the Emperor's side."

* * *

So far, so good.

As Arasine had warned him, Lord Shelik pretended to be too busy to see Jack — since he never liked dealing with aliens. But Jack had been stubborn and persistent, shouting about Arasine until he was blue in the face. And eventually, one of the servants had delivered Jack's message to Lord Shelik.

Who had come out at once.

"Arrested by Lord Nyin?!" cried Lord Shelik. "Struck?! Fed peasant food?!" He drew out his sword, pointed it at Jack. "If you lie, Earthman — and it was you who did such things to her — be warned that you will feel the wrath of my blade."

Jack raised up his hands. "Hey, with a face friendly like this — does it look like I'm lying?" Jack grinned at him. "Told you. She sent me here, herself. We're keeping her in hiding, for now — Lord Mazenku really has it in for her."

"I can see, in your eyes, that you feel your words are true," said Lord Shelik. "But they cannot be. Lord Mazenku knows nothing of my daughter. The two have never met."

Jack shrugged. "Dunno anything about that," he said. "Just telling it like it is."

"You have proof?" Lord Shelik demanded.

Jack nodded. "Just a little story Arasine told me," he said. "And no one else knows about but you."

It wasn't important what the story was — just something from her childhood. But it was all the proof Lord Shelik needed.

They departed for the palace at once.

"Lord Nyin will have you arrested," said Lord Shelik. "But I will convey your news about Mazenku's plot. Do not fear — when Lord Mazenku's treachery has been exposed, you will be released from confinement."

But that wasn't gonna work, and Jack knew it. Because he'd just told Lord Shelik about  _Mazenku's_  plot. He hadn't even gotten into the real reason he was there — the Glarnov weapon.

"Actually," said Jack, tucking his thumbs under his suspenders, "I got some magic words for you to tell your Emperor."

Lord Shelik had never heard of either Doctor or TARDIS, before.

But he delivered the message, while Jack was arrested by Lord Nyin. And before Nyin had a chance to execute Jack — a formal summons turned up from the Emperor, demanding that Jack join him.

Jack found Lord Shelik in a twisting hallway, which… presumably… would eventually lead to a throne room. And an Emperor.

"I informed him that there was a plot in the nobles, against him," said Lord Shelik. "But he said there are always noble plots against the Emperor, and would not hear me out." He paused. Frowning. "But when I told him your… words… he suddenly seemed gravely concerned. And demanded to see you, at once."

Jack had been warned about this. "To…  _see_  me," he checked. "Not…  _speak_  to me."

"I see you are versed in our customs, honorable Earthman," said Lord Shelik. "You are correct. The Emperor — may he live forever — has only granted you an audience. He has not given you permission to speak, or even open your mouth."

Jack had to bite back a flirt at this.

How did people expect him to be silent, when they kept feeding him such good lines?

"I'll be good," Jack said, instead. Tucking his thumbs under his suspenders. "Trust me — your daughter's got me all trained-up in rules for addressing an Emperor."

Lord Shelik gave him a sideways glance. "But how would she know?" he demanded. "She has never interacted with the Emperor. Our family is new nobility — she is not of high enough birth to ever set foot in the Imperial Court."

Jack shrugged. "Hey, I dunno why," he replied, "but trust me, when it comes to talking to an Emperor, Arasine knows every trick in the—"

He didn't even register the brown blur darting out of the room beside him. Not until a flash of silver out of the corner of his eyes, and then a stabbing pain in his chest, as a sword sliced through it.

He collapsed onto the ground.

His last thought of Seo, sternly commanding him not to bleed on her nice clean floors.

Then… he died.


	14. Chapter 14

Lord Shelik drew out his sword, the moment he saw what had happened to the Earthman. Found himself facing down both Lord Mazenku and Lord Nyin — teaming up on him from both sides.

"I am an old man, of no consequence," said Lord Shelik. "Please, see fit to spare me the—"

Mazenku lunged at him, and Lord Shelik parried, hastily. Then spun around to fend off another blow from behind, as Lord Nyin began in.

He had trained in the sword as a boy. And while he was not as young as he'd once been… Lord Shelik was still able to fend off the vicious attack — at least for a little while.

He felt himself tiring, quickly, though. Struggling to keep up with the two younger nobles, who seemed to have limitless energy and dexterity.

"There is no honor in this!" Lord Shelik shouted at them.

"When I am Emperor,  _I_  will decide what has honor and what doesn't," Lord Mazenku retorted. "And I will put your daughter to death for daring to cross swords with a member of the Imperial Family."

"These words are nonsense!" cried Lord Shelik. "My daughter has never…!"

"Oh, she's done many things behind your back, Lord Shelik," said Mazenku, lunging at his side. Shelik blocked it, quickly. "An inquisitive, unladylike wretch. A scar on the face of Draconian traditions! From the way she commands others, you'd think that  _she_  was the Emperor!"

"But this simply cannot be true!" said Lord Shelik.

"She has learned science with commoners," said Mazenku. "Conducted secret experiments! Created theories and theorems of her own, as if he were a man!"

He swung at Shelik's head, and Shelik ducked.

"In my regime, I will make an example of her!" said Mazenku. "I will strip your family of its nobility, once and for all. Confiscate your lands and your titles, and make her air her shames in public. I will—"

He cried out, suddenly.

As a figure appeared behind him — an old Draconian, sword in hand. And, with a single, precise slash, severed Lord Mazenku's head from his shoulders.

"An Emperor is always at risk of attack from his nobles," said the Emperor. Turning on Lord Nyin, towering over the Draconian.

Lord Nyin dropped to his knees. "Please, most excellent highness — may you live forever!" he pleaded. "Forgive my treachery. I see the error of my ways, and prostrate myself before…"

"You did not ask my permission to speak, Lord Nyin," said the Emperor.

Lord Nyin froze.

Then, bowing his head, "Your majesty. May I have permission to address the Emperor?"

The Emperor raised his sword, and swung it down in a sharp arc.

Lord Nyin's head tumbled from his shoulders.

"You have forfeited that claim, Lord Nyin," said the Emperor. He lowered his sword. Turning to face Lord Shelik. "But you, Lord Shelik, may have that honor."

Lord Shelik knelt by the Emperor, kissing his hand. "My life at your command."

"Indeed it may be," the Emperor replied. He gestured at the fallen Earthman. "Is this the Earthman who claimed he was sent by the Doctor?"

Lord Shelik glanced back at the dead man. "I apologize, highness," he said. "I failed to protect him."

"Yes, you did," said the Emperor, standing over the body. "The Doctor's emissary is dead, Lord Shelik. There will be consequences for this. And horrors beyond any of our imaginations."

"Highness, I—" Lord Shelik began.

The Earthman gasped back to life, sitting up, suddenly.

Both Draconians jumped. Staring at the Earthman in alarm.

"Whoa, that came out of nowhere!" said Jack. Then, realizing he was staring at a Draconian in the fanciest dress he'd seen, yet… figured out who this had to be.

Immediately knelt onto the ground, and bowed, deeply.

"If, Lord Shelik, you may tell the Emperor of my request to speak — though a mere commoner and an alien who holds no sway within this court — in the presence of the Emperor of Draconia, I wish to warn him of a great evil," Jack requested.

Remembering what Arasine had warned him —  _You're a commoner. With no rank in a Draconian court. Don't ever address the Emperor directly, unless you get specific permission to do otherwise._

The Emperor seemed impressed that Jack actually knew the correct procedure.

Lord Shelik… seemed shocked. Not sure how his daughter could possibly have known enough to teach Jack such things.

"I grant you permission to speak within my presence," said the Emperor — but, Jack noted, not permission to speak directly to him. "So long as you begin by explaining how you can be dead one minute, and alive the next."

Jack got up, a sheepish grin on his face. "Ah," he said — carefully addressing Lord Nyin. "Wouldn't you know? It's all thanks to a girl."

* * *

Seo bustled around her ship, helping the other three Draconians rebuild their experiment. "It's the only way I'll be able to see the Glarnov weapon," she explained. "And since he's got too much power in the mirror dimension to let me harm him, I'll have to do it while he's in our world."

"Good," said Tileka, fixing a lense in place. She shuddered. "That mirror dimension… is an evil place. I could feel it."

Arasine hesitated.

Then looked up and met Seo's eyes. For the first time… looking scared and vulnerable.

"Who am I?" Arasine asked. Then, with a shake of her head, "No. Who  _was_  I?"

Seo hesitated.

Bit her lower lip.

"Do not keep this from me, Lady Seo!" Arasine hissed. "I know you know the truth. Or have at least guessed. Why won't you tell me?"

"You really wouldn't believe it," Seo replied.

Arasine leveled an even stare at Seo. Not backing down.

But Seo wasn't backing down, either.

And one of them had to give.

"Fine, then," Arasine sighed, at long last. "An exchange. I will answer your question, if you answer mine."

"I haven't asked you a question," Seo said.

"You don't need to," Arasine replied. "Look at us, two ladies of Draconia. Both longing for approval, but rebelling against the rules. You are my mirror image, Lady Seo — for you know who you were. But no longer know who you  _are_."

Seo's hearts skipped a beat.

"It's the question you're too scared to ask," said Arasine.

"Don't tell me," Seo pleaded. "I don't want to know."

She thought she knew the answer already.

She was a Cyberplanner. A prosthetic personality patched across an interior that wanted to tear apart the universe just because she had a bad day. She was pain and grief and loss, through her whole soul… and she just wanted to beat the crap out of someone every time she thought about that loss too hard.

She was like the Glarnov weapon.

Built for war, death, and destruction.

"I don't want to hear it," Seo insisted, again. Put her hands over her ears. "Don't tell me!"

"You are a woman of honor," said Arasine, "integrity, and courage. A woman of peace."

Seo paused.

Dropping her hands, a little. "Not… a Cyberman?" she double-checked. "Not a weapon? Not a hell goddess?"

Arasine shook her head.

"My Lady speaks the truth," Tileka chimed in. "When you saw Hiffom was missing, you thought nothing of yourself — but raced back to rescue her."

"And you refused to speak against us, under interrogation," said Hiffom, "even though it meant your execution."

"Don't forget that you protected the Lady Arasine from the Glarnov weapon, when we escaped from Lord Nyin's prison," Tileka added.

Arasine nodded. Her eyes friendly and kind, as they looked at Seo. "If you were a monster or a Cyberman… you would not do such things."

Seo let her hands fall down to her sides. Wanted to protest that she'd almost ended the universe last week, had burnt out people's minds for the fun of it, had been tempted to tear Arasine and the rest of them apart more times than she could count, today.

But didn't.

Instead, she looked straight at Arasine, the hints of tears in her eyes.

"Thank you," said Seo.


	15. Chapter 15

"But this is a tale for children," the Emperor said, when Jack was done. "A woman with glowing, golden eyes, who calls herself the Bad Wolf and makes wishes to save her friends. A woman who crumbles Daleks to dust with her mind!"

Jack bowed his head.

"It is all true, your majesty," said Jack. "Every word."

The Emperor stroked his beard. "Yes," he decided. "It is the kind of story that only a true companion of the Doctor  _would_  tell." He held out his hand, palm up. "In that case, Earthman, I grant you permission to address me directly."

Jack bowed, again. Once again, on his knees before the Emperor.

"Your life at my command," Jack said.

"Get up, Earthman," the Emperor commanded. "Tell me what warning the Doctor brings to Draconia, this time."

But before Jack could speak, the Honorable Flascarf raced into the room.

Bowing, before the Emperor. "May I have permission to address the Emperor?"

"You may," said the Emperor, offering Flascarf his hand.

Flascarf kissed it, uttering a hurried, "My life at your command."

Then straightened. And pointed an accusing finger at Jack. "This Earthman is an imposter, your majesty," said Flascarf. "I have spoken to him many times today. He arrived in a glass pillar, in the company of a young, alien female. A female he claims is under his protection. He has encountered no 'doctors', and never so much as mentioned any. His sole concern seems to be for the female — who threatened your life!"

The Emperor looked between Jack and the Honorable Flascarf.

Reflecting.

"Remind me, Flascarf," said Jack. "What was your part in Lord Mazenku's plot against the Emperor?"

He was expecting angry protests and shouting from Flascarf.

What he got, instead… was a blank stare.

Which matched the one the Emperor gave him.

"Lord… Mazenku?" Jack prompted. "Just killed, out in the hallway? Ran me through with a sword?" He turned to Shelik. "Come on, Lord Shelik. You saw him, too."

"Majesty, I swear, I have no idea what he is talking about," Lord Shelik insisted. "I've never heard of a Lord Mazenku."

Damn.

Damn, damn, damn!

Trust that Glarnov weapon to find a way to make Jack's task that much harder.

"Majesty, as you can see, this Earthman is clearly mad," said Flascarf. "If he is an emissary, it is of the alien female; a cleverly disguised assassin. He assisted the female to escape our prisons, and I have been attempting to locate him ever since."

"And what have you to say for yourself, Earthman?" the Emperor cut in.

Jack gave the Emperor his most winning smile. "Okay, I'll give Flascarf one thing," he said. "The Doctor's not here. And I didn't show up here in the TARDIS — or not his, anyways. But I am still here representing him."

"You arrived here with… an alien female," the Emperor said. Voice suddenly a lot colder.

"Following the death of her mother, and at the request of her father… yes," said Jack. "I've been looking after a girl named Seo. She noticed something wrong the moment we arrived on Draconia. It is she who discovered the threat to your majesty."

"Lies!" said Flascarf.

"There's an invisible weapon that landed on your planet," Jack continued, "which only Seo can see, and only in very specific conditions. It's been murdering Draconians and rewriting your past, to make your race fall back on superstitions and cult-magic. I'm here on Seo's behalf, to warn you of the danger."

"You claimed you were here on behalf of the Doctor," said the Emperor.

"You see?" Flascarf agreed. Pointing at Jack. "Even now, he changes his story! He takes us for fools, as if…!"

"I have not, your majesty," said Jack, bowing his head. "I am here on her behalf.  _And_ on his."

"Explain," said the Emperor.

"The girl I'm looking after," Jack said, "is his daughter."

For a long while, there was silence in the throne room.

The Emperor thinking all this through.

* * *

"And now, you must answer my question," Arasine demanded. "Who was I? Who did I lose?"

Seo took a deep breath.

"You know, for a society that claims women are inferior," Seo told Arasine, "you are one of the bossiest people I know."

"That is not an answer, it is an insult," Arasine replied.

"No, it's part of an answer," Seo said. She fitted another lense into place. "I mean, what kind of Draconian noblewoman gets arrested and immediately acts like she's more high-and-mighty than Lord Nyin? What kind wanders around a conference, purposely greeting all the aliens to make them feel welcome? What kind knows every point of etiquette for greeting an Emperor, knows the personal relationships of the royal family, knows secrets about alien time travelers that only the Emperor and the Prince are ever told?"

"You offend me," Arasine replied. "You imply that I must do not act like a noblewoman of Draconia. After the honor I gave you by saying you were—"

"But there  _is_  one type of noblewoman," Seo countered, "who  _would_  act like that." She tweaked the lense, fixing the focus. "And the only one who'd tell me her blood was Draconia's blood, her offspring Draconia's offspring, her honor Draconia's honor."

Tileka gasped.

As she worked it out.

"The Queen," Tileka said. "You were… the Queen Mother of Draconia!"

* * *

"Your majesty, this is utterly preposterous!" Flascarf said. "That Earthman is a fraud and a felon. There is no proof the girl is who he claims she is! She was caught assisting illegal experiments, performed by females who insult Draconian traditions with their learning!"

"Your majesty, if I may," Lord Shelik offered. "My daughter, Arasine, was wrongly imprisoned by Lord Nyin, earlier today. A claim of conducting illegal experiments — although she would never do such a thing. I swear." He gestured at Jack. "This Earthman rescued her from injury and possibly execution."

"Your daughter was found in an illegal lab," said Flascarf, rounding on Lord Shelik. "Performing illegal experiments! You cannot deny the evidence! She  _is_ …!"

"You will be silent, Honorable Lord Flascarf," said the Emperor, with the wave of his hand. "I withdraw your permission to speak."

Flascarf could barely contain his fury.

But did so.

"Your daughter," said the Emperor, to Lord Shelik, "is the Lady Arasine?"

Lord Shelik didn't quite know what to say. "Your highness does me honor to speak her name."

"Do you know her?" Jack cut in.

The Emperor fell silent. The merest hint of hesitation in his eyes, as he clutched for a memory that wasn't quite there.

Then… shook his head.

"I… was mistaken," the Emperor decided. "I do not…"

"Oh, I think you do, your majesty," said Jack. "In fact, I'm starting to think this Glarnov weapon has taken someone from this palace before. And no one but Seo has noticed."

* * *

"Well, no," Seo countered. "Not the Queen; that'd be silly. I think she was more like… a princess."

Arasine went very quiet.

When she spoke again… her voice shook.

"You lie to me, Lady Seo," said Arasine. But she sounded unsure.

Seo shook her head. "I think… deep down inside… you know it's true. You married the Crowned Prince. You must have been one of the most famous faces on Draconia." She shrugged. "That's why the Glarnov weapon took such an interest in you."

Arasine didn't know what to say.

"It would be impossible," Arasine whispered. "My family is new nobility. We would never even be considered as a suitable match for royalty."

Seo shrugged. "Don't know how it happened. Or why. But… it makes sense."

"But I remember nothing of this," Arasine said, her voice trembling. "I remember no husband. No prince. How could I have…?"

"It's not your fault, my lady — your royal highness," Tileka corrected herself. "The Glarnov weapon took him away. You could not have remembered him if you tried."

"Thing is, I don't think the prince is completely gone, yet," said Seo. "That's part of the Glarnov weapon's game. Your husband's still alive, in the mirror dimension. Waiting for you."

Seo finished up her work, and launched herself at the console.

"And when I'm done saving the Emperor," Seo decided, "I'm gonna get him back."

* * *

"While all Draconians are subject to the same laws," the Emperor decided, "a Lady of Draconia should never be subjected to such an indignity as a common prison cell, or the inability of an appeal from her father or husband." His eyes rested on Lord Shelik. "Was your daughter afforded these rights, Lord Shelik?"

Lord Shelik shook his head. "The first I heard of it was when this Earthman carried news to me, only minutes ago."

"And you, Earthman," said the Emperor, turning back to Jack. "Who have defended the honor of a noblewoman of Draconia. What would you have me do?"

In Seo's words?  _Don't let the Emperor out of your sight._

"Pledge myself to be your protector," Jack said. "Until the emergency is over." He knelt down by the Emperor's side. "If your highness permits it," he swore, "I'll place my life at your command."

The Emperor nodded, sagely.

"Very well," he said. "My permission is granted."


	16. Chapter 16

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm gonna go ahead and define "Braxiatel moment" for everyone. It's something I was planning to go into, in later stories, but... meh, I'll just explain it now.
> 
> Irving Braxiatel is a Time Lord who is very closely related to the Doctor (it's suggested in various places that they were brothers). He's famous for starting the Braxiatel Collection, one of the greatest repositories of art in the Universe (Romana mentions this in one of the 4th Doctor episodes). In the Big Finish audio dramas, we discover that Braxiatel is also a very clever and very sneaky guy who usually has a few tricks up his sleeve.
> 
> The other thing about Irving Braxiatel is that he constantly breaks the first law of time. He is always in constant communication with past and future versions of himself, all trying to work to the same agenda.
> 
> It is very strongly implied, in the audio dramas, that Braxiatel has foreseen the end of the Time Lords, and that his efforts are to try to avert this catastrophe. I think he's foreseen the Time War with the Daleks. In the Bernice Summerfield audio plays, we discover why Braxiatel failed to end that war and save the Time Lords, as all his plans get messed up. But considering how many laws of time he breaks in the process of trying, you gotta say... at least he gave it his best go.
> 
> I absolutely love Braxiatel. And was intending to feature him very heavily in future stories.
> 
> But since I'm not writing those stories, anymore, I'm just explaining it now. I've decided that, when I'm done posting the end of this season, I'll post up a few of the detailed summaries that I'd created for future stories. (Including the summary for the story in which Dawn dies, which would have been an excellent story). Those will feature Braxiatel much more.
> 
> But that's what a "Braxiatel moment" is, anyways.
> 
> (By the way, I'm so betting Braxiatel had a hand in creating the Moment. A gigantic bomb who was sentient and cunning, and who seems perfectly engineered to unite multiple versions of yourself? It's an extremely Braxiatel thing to build.)

 

The three Draconians and one Seo all stepped back from the device that had just been constructed inside Oliver. Admiring their handiwork.

"It's not exactly the same," Tileka said. "But it should do the trick."

Arasine nodded.

As she slotted the tiny dimensional hand-mirror into place.

"Now what?" said Hiffom.

"Now," Seo said, racing over to the console of her ship, "we make a short hop into the Draconian palace." She punched some buttons, and pulled a lever. The engines making a loud groan, as they roared into life, and the landscape disappeared from the windows, replaced with a turbulent vortex of colors. "And land smack bang in the middle of…!"

The ship jolted.

Then began to scream and whine and kick up a fuss, spinning like crazy through the vortex.

Tileka, Hiffom, and Arasine desperately clung to the equipment they'd just set up. Trying to keep it from smashing into a million pieces.

"No, Oliver!" Seo pleaded. "Not now!"

She started poking and prodding at levers, but couldn't get the ship back under control.

"What's happening?" Shouted Arasine, over the noise.

"Temper tantrum," Seo said, slamming her hand against the central console. "He gets like this, sometimes. Nothing to worry about."

"Your ship has temper tantrums?!" Tileka cried.

"He's only 1.2 million years old!" Seo insisted. "Cut him some slack!" She wrestled with the controls, trying to force the machine to land. "Just home in on Jack, and we should be…"

She stopped.

Paused. Staring.

"What?" Said Hiffom.

Seo blinked. "Nothing," she assured them, although her rapid and frantic manipulation of Oliver's controls said that it was far from nothing. "Just can't seem to find… But no, must have overlooked it. Just have to do it manually!"

She threw down another lever.

"Short hop, on manual!" said Seo. "How hard can it be?"

* * *

Arasine poked her head out the door. Then stepped onto the surface of the planet, brow deeply furrowed, inspecting her surroundings.

"Lady Seo," she announced. "This is not Draconia."

"Of course it is," Seo replied, stepping out to join her. Tileka and Hiffom trailing, behind.

They looked out at the dense forests, around them. The unfamiliar insects and the low moan and hiss of unfamiliar animals.

"This doesn't look like anywhere on Draconia I know," Hiffom agreed. She slapped at a mosquito, as it landed on her arm. "And it's certainly not the throne room."

"Who says?" said Seo, stubbornly. Charging ahead. "Maybe the Emperor redecorated!"

They followed her. But stopped, as they caught sight of the gigantic Iguanodon dinosaur, in full view, munching on a bunch of leaves at the top of a tall tree.

"That is not a creature of Draconia!" said Tileka, pointing to it.

"It… could be," Seo said. She grimaced. "I mean, who's to say they don't have… dinosaurs… somewhere on…?"

Under their glares, Seo finally gave up.

"All right, so I missed the mark by a lot of light years and a few million years," Seo said, trudging back to her ship. "I'll try again."

The three exchanged looks.

As they raced after Seo.

"A few million years?" said Hiffom. "What do you mean, a few million years?!"

* * *

"A time machine!" Arasine stared at the console, again, in wonder. "No wonder you knew the theory so well. You own a time machine of your own."

Seo shoved down the materialization lever, again.

And the view in the windows shifted to a planet with purple skies and an exploding volcano in the distance.

"My ship is brilliant," Seo insisted, as she pulled the ship back into the vortex. " _I'm_  brilliant." She snapped a number of settings into place. Wound up a crank, and then slid something else to the right. "And what are a few million parsecs or a few million years between friends?"

They landed, again.

This time, just outside a satellite orbiting Earth, which advertised itself as "Satellite Five". About… 200,000 years too late.

Seo pulled them back into the vortex, with a sigh.

"When you say… you very nearly destroyed the universe," Arasine offered, "did you mean to say that you crashed into it due to your terrible driving?"

"Everyone's a critic!" Seo complained.

Materializing her ship, again.

On a planet with a petrified forest, and a lot of tall blond people looking at them, surprised.

Dematerialized, once more.

"I thought you said homing in on Jack was easy," said Hiffom.

"It is!" Seo insisted. Slamming her hand into the controls. "I just… can't… find him!"

They all stared at her.

"Don't look at me like that!" Seo said. She fiddled with some controls. "Oliver must have just mucked up some controls, when he went on his little fit. Ah! See? There Jack is!"

She shoved down the materialization lever.

And the four found themselves in the middle of a battlefield. A bomb exploding, on their left, splattering the ship in mud.

Just in front of them, through the window, they spotted a very small girl with pigtailed brown hair, wearing combat boots and camo gear, a small handgun woven into her rightmost braid.

She stormed up to the ship, inserted a key into the lock, and pushed the doors open.

"No, this isn't Draconia!" she chided them, strolling over to the central console with complete confidence. Shooting a hard stare at Seo, added, "And you really need to stop doing this."

Seo blinked.

"You… you're…!" Seo cried.

The short girl with pigtails began working the controls much more expertly. "Honestly, why was I so determined to prove I could do short hops, before I could actually  _do_  them?" she ranted. Raced around to the other side of the console, butting Seo out of the way so she could get to those controls. "Really. Having to rely on  _me_ for help! This is what my sister would call a 'Braxiatel Moment'."

"Seo?" said Tileka, hesitantly. "Who… is this?"

"Long story," said the girl. "Good to see you three again. Tileka, Hiffom, and — the Princess Arasine! Been a few centuries." She shoved around a few more controls, muttering to herself. "Inertial dampeners on. Field strengtheners at max. And…" Spinning on Seo. "…why do you have these buttons hidden behind a welded panel?! They're important, you know!" She yanked the panel off the top, and slammed her fist on a button.

Seo grabbed the panel back from her. "I… I don't need help!" she insisted. "I was doing fine by myself! I…!"

"Lying to yourself is the first sign of madness," the girl warned. "Or maybe denial."

Then, with a final switch, she stepped away. Boots clomping against the floor of the ship.

"There," she said. "Everything's all set. Just wait until I get out, before you dematerialize." She shook her finger at Seo. "And take care of yourself, Seo! If you die before you become me, the paradoxes involved could…!"

"I'll keep it in mind," Seo muttered.

Watching as the girl trudged out of the ship and threw the doors closed behind her.

"Seo, how did that person know our names?" said Tileka. "Why did she have a key to your ship? Why did she know how to pilot it better than you, and what did she mean by, 'die before you become me'?"

Seo slammed down the dematerialization lever. "Nothing! Not important."

Arasine studied her, carefully. "They say the Doctor can change his face," she noted. "If you are of his blood, can you also…?"

The ship stopped, suddenly.

Landing right smack in the middle of the throne room.

Except… something was wrong. Very, very wrong.

"The throne room looks quiet," Arasine said, looking through the window. She frowned. "Strange. Judging from the sun through the window, it's just past noon. The Emperor is always here, at that time, to receive the appeals and entreaties of the noble houses."

Seo turned.

Looked out, at the empty throne room, with the others.

"Perhaps he is busy elsewhere, today," Tileka volunteered. "It is not our place to question the Emperor."

Seo's face went pale. "No, he's not," she said. Racing forwards and bursting through the doors. "I see him."

The others looked at one another.

Hesitating, before entering the royal throne room, which should be forbidden.

But Arasine threw caution to the wind, and raced out, after Seo. The other two following close behind.

Seo was knelt down, by the floor just beside the throne. The sun shining through the windows cast this part of the room in shadow, but the three Draconians could see, just in front of Seo…

"The Emperor!" Hiffom gasped, backing away a step.

He was staring straight ahead. Eyes vacant. A blank expression on his face. Unmoving, except for a tremble running through him.

"He's still alive," Seo said, examining him. "Still breathing." She tried to pick him up. "Someone call a doctor! He's hurt!"

The three Draconians all stepped back, in horror.

As Seo touched the Emperor.

"No!" Tileka cried, pulling Seo away. "It is forbidden to touch the Emperor!"

"Look at him! He needs help!" Seo insisted. "Whatever rules you have, there has to be a point at which you can ignore them, and help save a life!"

The door to the throne room opened.

And Lord Shelik entered, a sharp expression on his face. "What are you intruders doing here?" he demanded. "This chamber has been sealed up since the death of the Last of the Draconian Emperors, seventy years ago. It is strictly forbidden for…!"

"Father," said Arasine, spinning around.

Lord Shelik blinked. Then blinked again. "I… don't believe it." He rushed forwards, to embrace her. "Arasine! Is that you? You've been gone… at least three months!"

Arasine, Hiffom, and Tileka all stared. In alarm.

"Three months?!" Tileka cried.

Seo opened her mouth to speak. Then, wisely, decided any excuse would probably be a bad idea, right now. And shut up.

"Your mother and myself have been searching for you, tirelessly," Lord Shelik continued, gazing at his daughter with wonder. "We thought something dreadful must have happened! It is not safe for a young girl to be alone, not with the civil war underway."

"Civil war?" said Hiffom. "What civil war?"

"Don't give me that," said Lord Shelik, with a scoff. "At your age, you won't know a time when we haven't been at war. At least seventy years, now."

Seo sucked in a sharp breath.

And Arasine looked back at her. A little perplexed. "Seo, what…?"

"The Glarnov weapon is a weapon from the Time War," Seo said. "It rewrites time." She gestured around them. "That's why no one's been in here, to find the Emperor like this! Everyone's forgotten about him!"

"But he's right  _there_ ," Hiffom said, with a glance over at the Emperor. "You said he was still alive!"

Lord Shelik looked over. Then did a double-take. "But… that's…" He rushed over to the Emperor, trying to figure out what was going on. "I don't understand. It's as if… there's something I've forgotten. Something…!"

"Something about traveling with me must be shielding you three from the full effects," Seo told Arasine, Tileka, and Hiffom. "Don't ask me what — because I don't know. Running into myself, maybe? But at any rate, Arasine's father isn't shielded. He doesn't remember that this Emperor ever existed."

"Instead, he remembers there being no Emperor," Tileka whispered. "Only a bloody and endless civil war."

Arasine turned on Seo, with hard eyes. "You," she hissed. "You brought us here three months late!" She threw herself at Seo. "This is your fault!"

Seo stumbled backwards, out of the furious Draconian's grasp. "No, I didn't mean to…!"

"If you could control that ship of yours," Arasine shouted, "we might have saved the Emperor! We could have…!"

"I couldn't home in on Jack!" Seo protested. "I got lost! I didn't mean to…!"

Lord Shelik blinked. Confused. "Jack? Who's Jack?"

Everyone froze.

Then turned on Lord Shelik.

"You've… never heard of Jack Harkness?" Telika asked, wearily. "The Earthman who arrived, three months ago?"

"The one who rescued me?" Arasine prompted. "Sent to protect the Emperor from a great evil?"

"Who?" said Lord Shelik.

Seo, meanwhile, stooped down, just in front of the throne. To pick up the dropped vortex manipulator.

"He must have gotten it back, sometime during the three months," Seo said. "One last lingering remnant of him, left behind after he disappeared. Like the visors, in the lab."

Hiffom looked at the vortex manipulator in Seo's hand. "But that looks like…"

"Of course it is!" Seo shouted. Stomping her foot against the floor, her eyes wild. "Don't you understand what this means? I couldn't home in on Jack… because he wasn't here! He got taken!"

"I don't understand," said Lord Shelik.

The Emperor twitched.

And everyone jumped a mile high. Turning on him, all at once.

"To: Seo. I saw that you cheated," said the Emperor, in a monotone. Raised up a hand to point at Seo, eyes not looking at her. "Ruined my game. So I stole your toy, instead."

Seo's breath caught in her throat.

As her eyes turned to Arasine. And she backed away, slightly. "I… didn't think of that. I…" There was a horrible, sick feeling inside her, now. Every time she thought of Jack, suffering because she'd mucked things up. "Jack…"

"What?" said Tileka. "What does it mean?"

But it was Arasine who answered. "We became immune to the Glarnov weapon's memory wipe," she said. "But that was the Glarnov weapon's game — to try to make me forget. She ruined his fun."

"So it took Jack, instead," Seo said. "It stole…"

She spun around, racing back to Oliver. Grabbing up the equipment, frantically starting up the experiment, again.

"Can't force open a portal, not at this strength," Seo said. "But with the experiment running… I can get back into the mirror dimension more easily. Retrieve Jack and fix this all. Before…"

"Arasine, you should not be associating with this… madwoman," said Lord Shelik, trying to lead his daughter away. "There has been no Emperor of Draconia for decades! This Earth-woman is simply a delusional…!"

Arasine broke free from her father.

Instead, stepped into Oliver, beside Seo. "If you're going into the mirror dimension, then I'm coming with you," she said. "It seems I've lost a Prince. And I want him back."

* * *

They started up the experiment, again.

Lord Shelik protesting, vehemently. But unable to stop it.

As Arasine and Seo stepped into the mirror dimension. And vanished.


	17. Chapter 17

 

Seo helped steady Arasine, when they entered the mirror dimension. Seo's lack of energy, combined with the skewed light in the room during transference, had shifted them to a different room and a different location within the palace.

Arasine recognized it.

"The library," Arasine breathed, looking around herself. There was a look of wonder in her eyes. "Yes! I… I've been here before! My safe place. The one place I knew… I always belonged."

Seo squinted, upwards.

At the rows upon rows of books, ascending to the heavens.

"So you were always a bit academic, it seems," Seo observed. "Even during your previous life."

Arasine was no longer paying attention to Seo, though.

She'd run over, suddenly focused on an abandoned chalk-board, nestled in one corner of the room. Half-erased equations scattered across it.

"No," Arasine breathed. Placed her hand on it. "No, no, no!"

Seo tip-toed over. "Arasine?"

"I don't remember him," Arasine said. Closing her eyes and concentrating, hard. "But… I feel like… this is his. Ours. Our place, our life, our time." She tried even harder to dredge up the memory. But it was gone. "That Glarnov weapon took it all away. It stole everything I was from me!"

Seo took a step forwards. Reached out a hand. "I understand."

"No, you don't!" Arasine shouted, batting the hand away. "How can you? Nobody could understand unless they had…!"

She stopped.

Her eyes fixed on Seo.

Then sat down on one of the couches, opposite the chalkboard. "I see. This is why you don't know who you are, anymore. The source of your loss of identity. Because you… understand."

Seo sat down beside her.

Hands tucked between her knees.

"Was it… the Glarnov weapon?" Arasine asked.

Seo shook her head. "I… tried to save humanity, a while ago," she said. "They kidnapped me. Used some machine to burn away most of my personality. I… wound up tricking a Cyberplanner into mucking around with my brain, so I could create an artificial copy of my personality. That's what you're seeing, now."

Arasine looked over at her.

A sad, sympathetic look on her face.

"It hurts, though," Seo admitted. "The kind of pain you feel when you know… you've lost everything. Absolutely everything. I didn't know how to deal with it. I tried to blow up the universe, just to get it to stop."

"At least you remember who you were," Arasine said.

Seo gave a side-shrug. "At least you know who you  _are_ ," she replied. Then got back to her feet, and helped Arasine up. "Come on. We better find Jack and your Prince."

Arasine looked around herself, as they exited the library. "Is it not strange," she said, "that the Glarnov weapon has left us alone, thus far?"

Seo frowned.

Now that she mentioned it…

All thoughts were cut off, though, as a huge burst of energy slammed through the palace. Nearly knocking Seo and Arasine over.

Everywhere, lights began to flicker. Walls melting, just a little. Then stabilizing, so that everything looked just like it had always been.

"That's definitely not normal," Seo said.

Arasine began to run. Seo chasing close behind.

"The throne room," Arasine called back. "That's where it's coming from! We must get there!"

* * *

They saw what the trouble was before they got to the threshold of the throne room.

As the Glarnov weapon raised his hands, blasting a smear of white energy towards Jack… which echoed out from its origin…

And actually did throw Seo and Arasine to the ground, with the impact.

"Jack!" Seo said, stumbling back to her feet.

She could see him, as the whiteness faded. Standing in the throne room, although bits of it seemed to blend with every other room throughout Jack's memories. Bits of 18th century floor mixed with TARDIS coral walls and bits of grating, along with 51st century vinyl and 1970's carpet.

And in the middle of the room… stood Jack. Leaning over a control panel of flashing lights. His hand over a button. Tears rolling down his face.

As he tried to decide… whether or not to hit it.

Beside him stood the Glarnov Weapon. But it wasn't nearly as smug or jovial as it had been, last time. No, it was tense, furious, its teeth bared and sparks shooting from it. Looked like this wasn't the first time it had blasted Jack with energy, and it wouldn't be the last.

Seo tried to race forwards, to get to Jack. But Arasine jumped to her feet, grabbed Seo by the arm, and held her back.

"Look," said Arasine, gesturing at the shimmering light across the doorway. "I think… if I'm not mistaken… that this is the reason the Glarnov weapon did not find us, earlier. It is trapped in this room."

The Glarnov weapon finally seemed to notice that Seo and Arasine were nearby. It spun on them, turning a thunderous glare at Seo. "You did this," it accused. "You tricked me."

"I did?" Seo looked back at Jack. And suddenly beamed. "Ha! I did! Oh, look at me; I'm brilliant even when I'm not trying!"

"I don't understand," said Arasine. "What did you do?"

"It's a weapon that erases people from time!" Seo said. "And Jack's a fixed point. So when it tried to erase him… play up his bad memories and let down his shields and swallow him up… the Glarnov weapon got itself stuck in a loop."

Arasine frowned.

Nodded, as though she understood. But was clearly still trying to work out the intricate details of the mathematics in her head.

"A spacio-temporal loop," Seo said, looking back out at Jack. "Which, knowing the Glarnov weapon… would probably have been triggered right during one of Jack's worst memories…"

Jack pressed the button.

And suddenly, Seo and Arasine could see a fair-haired boy in the room. Screaming. Blood pouring out of his nose and eyes.

"…in which, apparently, he kills someone," Seo said, a little uneasily.

She couldn't help but think… the child was familiar, somehow. Like an image that had once been in her mind, but had faded.

"His own grandson," said the Glarnov weapon. "One child, dead, to save humanity." His eyes bored deep into Seo. "That's the same justification they used to kill you, isn't it?"

Seo went very quiet.

Her eyes fixed on Jack's memory, as it reset itself. Jack with his hand poised over the button. Making that decision to kill…

"Bit different, seeing him sacrifice a kid to save humanity," said the Glarnov weapon, "when you've been the kid. Felt what it's like to be burned away and killed. Betrayed by someone you trusted… so much." He shot Seo a side-look. "You and Steven have a lot in common, I'd say."

Seo forced herself not to think about this.

She had no idea what this memory was taken from, when it happened, or what the circumstances were. For all she knew… it might have happened centuries ago. It might not even have been Jack's fault.

"He's done it before, Seo, and he'll do it again," said the Glarnov weapon. "Unless… of course… you do the one thing I can't. Become your real self — your weapon self. And kill him for good."

"That's not my real self," Seo said, automatically.

"The only part of you that doesn't burn away?" the Glarnov weapon said. "The only part of you that no other personality can control in that twisted little head of yours? Sounds like it's the real Seo to me." His eyes gleamed. "A mindless, brutal, destructive weapon. Ready to tear down universes."

"Stop it," Seo hissed.

"Perfectly happy to kill friends, family, relations," the Glarnov weapon continued, "simply because you woke up feeling a teensy bit grumpy."

"She has already informed you she will not kill her friend," Arasine cut in. Holding her chin up high, looking down at the Glarnov weapon. "As a Lady of Draconia, Seo is under my protection. As is everyone else you've snatched away. I demand that you release them all, immediately."

The Glarnov Weapon shifted his eyes over to Arasine. Noticing her for the first time.

"Oh, you brought the Princess!" the Glarnov Weapon laughed. He gave a mock-bow. "Begging your pardon, your highness. Did I break your empire?"

Arasine didn't break his gaze.

"Give me back my husband," said Arasine.

"Fiancé," the Glarnov weapon corrected. "But then… I did snatch him during your wedding day. So I suppose that's splitting hairs."

"Give me back my Prince," Arasine demanded. "And all the others you've stolen, here. Or I swear… I will do everything within my power to ensure you pay the full price for your defiance."

"Get a load of her!" said the Glarnov weapon, pointing at Arasine and cracking up. "Oh, I take it back, Seo. Doesn't matter if she's immune to the memory wipe or not — she's still just as much fun now as she was before."

He spun around.

Blasted Jack with yet another burst of energy.

Seo and Arasine were shoved several feet back, from the impact. Limbs tangling together, in a giant heap, on the floor.

"For your information, Princess," said the Glarnov weapon, "I've destroyed so many races that the word 'genocide' is just a regular part of my vocabulary. I've torn apart whole planets so they never existed. Torn some of the most important people in the cosmos out of time and unwrote their history, stitch by stitch, while they writhed in the middle of their worst memory. I am one of the finest weapons designed by one of the finest races of weapons-builders in the galaxy. So really… what do you have that can harm me?"

Arasine got back to her feet. Glanced, with a hint of pride, at Jack. "Him."

The Glarnov weapon seethed, a little.

"Remember: Jack has trapped you in a single room," said Arasine. "But I am still at liberty." She crossed her arms. "Why should I not leave you here, forever, while I rescue my people from your death-trap?"

"Because it's not just me and Jack in here," said the Glarnov weapon, gesturing.

Behind him, a Draconian royal faded into view. Looking much like the others, here, following a ritual with no thought or emotion behind it. Just stuck in a routine.

He leaned down, by the Emperor's empty throne.

And kissed an imaginary hand.

Arasine clutched the edge of the doorjamb so tight, her knuckles turned white. "No…"

"Oh, you finally remember all of it!" said the Glarnov weapon. "Took you long enough. You sure you really love this guy as much as you claim?"

Seo could see… most of the Prince had been chipped away. Little more than an empty shell, unaware of his surroundings.

"Yes, he's pretty much gone," the Glarnov weapon confirmed. "Personality, brain activity — saved eating up his personal timeline integrity for the end, though. It's the tastiest bit."

"No," Arasine breathed. "No."

"Now, just how many Cyberplanners would you need to rebuild  _his_ personality, do you think?" the Glarnov weapon asked Seo. "Or… does that trick only work when you've been manufactured, like us?"

Seo ignored him. Instead, placed a hand against Arasine's back. "Arasine, I'm… so sorry."

Arasine couldn't take her eyes off him. "I remember," she said. A single tear rolling down her face. "Creax. My Prince. I remember… everything."

And so she told them.


	18. Chapter 18

_"What_ _is this?" her father demanded, snatching the book from her. He glanced at it, then stepped forwards, getting right in her face. "I've told you more times than there are stars in the Draconian Empire! You must not read, Arasine. Never!"_

_Arasine cowered. She was ten years old. And always in trouble._

_Her father's rage softened. He put the book aside, and came to comfort her. "I know you only seek to entertain yourself, Arasine. But reading is dangerous for you."_

_"My friends are not banned from reading," said Arasine. "They have tutors who read them books all day long."_

_"Books designed to teach them proper etiquette and decency in society," her father confirmed. He picked up the book, again. And sighed. "Not books on physics."_

_Arasine didn't understand what was the matter with this._

_"I've already read all the books on etiquette," Arasine said. Those books were how she'd taught herself to read. "I know how I'm supposed to behave. Now I wish to understand_ why _."_

_Her father shook his head._

_As if this made his point for him._

_"What in our history has led to these rules?" Arasine continued. "Everyone says women don't have the capacity to understand the universe. But why? What makes the universe so complicated? And if it is so complex, then how can we express such huge and complicated stellar phenomena with tiny little numbers?"_

_"This is why you must never read, Arasine," her father warned. "It sparks forbidden knowledge within your head. We have enough trouble with your... mental illness... without dealing with books on top of that." He placed a hand on her shoulder. "You must disguise your illness, Arasine. Not feed it."_

_"I don't understand why being clever is a mental illness," Arasine said. "I don't feel sick. If I had been born a male..."_

_"But you were not," said her father. "Males are naturally born to be clever. Females are not. A female with the intellect and curiosity of a male is... an abhorrence. Shameful."_

_"Why?"_

_He sent her to her room as punishment for asking that — and for reading his books. He left her under careful supervision by the under-servants, just so he could make sure she wasn't spending her punishment time reading hidden books or trying to learn things, surreptitiously._

_Arasine stood by her window. Watching as her father departed the house, and headed towards the Imperial Palace._

_Father had said that females were not permitted to set foot in there. And certainly not_ her _. Arasine wondered what was inside the palace that made her father have to keep going back. And why he always seemed so nervous and foul-tempered on days when he was obliged to go._

_Arasine had a theory._

_If books were forbidden for all but men, and the palace was forbidden for all but men... then, logically, the palace must be a place filled with books._

_And father was always nervous when he went because he was scared she'd figure that out, and follow him inside so she could read._

_Perhaps he was right to be nervous._

_Because it was at that second — in disgrace, staring out a window and pretending to think nothing — that Arasine decided to do exactly that._

* * *

_It had taken her a while to break into the palace. She'd disguised herself as a helping hand for the laundry workers, and got her hands on a tunic designed for young boys of the imperial royal family. If she dressed herself up as one of the imperial royal family, the guards would be obliged to avert their gaze — as they were mere commoners._

_They would not look too hard, and she could get inside._

_Arasine was surprised just how well this worked. She wondered why no one else had tried this — then remembered that it was a shameful thing to do and she would be severely punished if she were caught._

_But the thought of all those books!_

_All that forbidden knowledge!_

_She had to risk it._

_Arasine spent a long time searching the palace for books. She was surprised there weren't books everywhere, the second she'd entered the palace._

_Perhaps... they knew that females like her would sneak inside, and had hidden the books in a secret place — to make sure no female could find them._

_Arasine found her evidence of a secret book-stash soon enough. In one chamber, she discovered an abandoned work-area. A desk with some pages of writing. Along with a few open books, which were all stamped with the seal of the Royal Library._

_Arasine looked through them. Mathematics books — and fascinating._

_But what was even more fascinating were the pages that had been left, abandoned, on the table beside the books. Mathematical problems, with answers written out in pen below. It was some sort of… test or trial, apparently — to make you find the answer by using knowledge you had gained from the book, combined with other knowledge you'd gained elsewhere._

_Most of the problems had answers written in._

_Some still had none._

_Arasine sat down and began studying the pages, carefully. Questions and answers. It began to spark ideas in her head, complex and intricate patterns that she could see playing out across the world and into the stars. She began to add to the pages, outlining her ideas and writing them in, as she gained knowledge._

_Then moved on to the problems that had no answers._

_She was so absorbed in her work, she did not notice the other boy enter until he was right on top of her. Pulling her up from her seat and spinning her around._

_"Mazenku, I've warned you not to copy my homework a million..." the boy stopped. As he took in Arasine. "You're not Mazenku."_

_Arasine froze._

_Terrified._

_"You're a female!" the boy said. He sounded indignant, angry, and terribly powerful. "How dare you insult the honor of Draconia by wearing...?"_

_"Who are you speaking to, your highness?" came a voice from behind the boy._

_The boy turned._

_Arasine took advantage of the distraction and ran. Fast as she could, away from that place. And all the way back home._

_She knew she should not return. She knew it was foolish, and she may well lose her life and her honor to do so. If she had not already sacrificed both, simply by meeting and affronting the Crowned Prince — his "highness"._

_But... she still hadn't found the secret library with all those books._

_So, after a long while, she donned the tunic once more._

_And crept back into the palace._

* * *

"That was how you met the Prince?" Seo said.

"Yes — simply because I was young and foolish," Arasine said. "I should never have entered the palace in the first place. But when I came home, I found Father had locked up his library tighter than ever before... and I had no hope of reading anything, ever again."

"So you had no choice," Seo said.

"If I wanted to read," Arasine agreed, "I knew I had to break into the palace. It was my only option."

"And when you did… you ran into the Prince again?" Seo guessed.

Arasine shook her head. "On the contrary. He sought me out."

* * *

_She'd found it._

_Finally found it. The royal library._

_Arasine stared at the books in rapturous awe. So much knowledge, spanning such a long distance — the most books she had seen in her entire life._

_She went a little mad._

_Racing around, surveying book after book, trying to see what this library had to offer. Letting it soak in that she was here — actually here — in a place where no books were locked up and no stack alarmed to alert her father should she get close. History, science, technology, poetry... everything was laid out, just ready for her to learn it._

_A throat cleared, behind her._

_Arasine looked up from the book she'd been flipping through. Froze, as she saw... the same boy she'd met last time. The one who'd been called 'your highness'._

_The Prince._

_Arasine turned to run... but found only a wall behind her, and the thick stacks blocking her escape on either side. She was trapped. Her mental illness discovered. And now... she would bring shame to her family._

_"I've been waiting for you," the Prince said._

_Arasine dropped the book on the floor. Backed up, against the wall, unable to stop herself from shaking. Her eyes desperately seeking a way out._

_"I would advise against fleeing," the Prince warned her. "No Draconian may leave or enter the presence of his Royal Highness the Prince without my permission. If you do not wish to add to your crimes, you will obey." He reached out, gently took her chin between her fingers. And turned her face away. "And you will avert your gaze, as befits a female. Is that clear?"_

_"Yes," Arasine said, her voice so faint it barely sounded._

_"Do not speak in my presence!" the Prince commanded her, sharply. "Kneel down before me and keep your gaze averted. When I demand you reply or demand that you move from your position, then you may do so. But not before."_

_Arasine did as she was told._

_Wishing she had never taken the risk and returned here._

_"That's better," the Prince decided. For a long moment, he was silent. And Arasine realized... he was examining her. Closely. "You truly are a female. And years younger than I. How can that be?"_

_Arasine didn't know if he wanted her to answer this or not._

_She could feel herself struggling not to cry._

_"After you left, I had to recopy the work you defiled," said the Prince. "I raged against you long into the night. The arrogance and impudence — thinking you knew better than me, the Prince of Draconia! Daring to defile my work and flee my presence without asking permission. Even your garments are an affront to Draconian decency! I resolved to set out the next day, after my lessons were over, and strike you down where you stood. An example to any others who chose to defy me."_

_Arasine couldn't stop the tears anymore._

_Nor the heavy, terrified sobs that accompanied them._

_The Prince's voice softened a little. "But the next day... I found one of my answers had been wrong. And when my tutor corrected the mistake... he did so in precisely the way you had."_

_He stepped away from her._

_Ponderous._

_"On a whim... I then proposed some of the other ideas and concepts you'd scribbled down," said the Prince. His proud demeanor wavered, his voice almost... trembling. "My tutor was taken by how utterly brilliant it was. I'd never seen him like that, before."_

_He cleared his throat._

_"Speak," the Prince commanded, voice now back to normal. "What have you to say for yourself?"_

_Arasine didn't know what to say._

_"Please," she whimpered, "let me go. Please."_

_"I am the cleverest Draconian in the Empire," the Prince declared. "Everyone agrees. My tutors praise me to the heavens, my father sets me as an example to the other students, and even my peers remark upon my great wisdom. Yet you, a female several years younger than myself, have bested me. How?!"_

_The answer to that was obvious._

_Just as it was obvious he didn't want to hear it._

_"Answer!" the Prince demanded, drawing his sword and pointing it at her throat. "Or I shall run you through where you kneel."_

_She had no choice._

_So she told him._

_"You're_ not  _the cleverest Draconian in the Empire," said Arasine. "But everyone is afraid of you. So they tell you what you wish to hear. It's sad that you..."_

_She stopped._

_Realizing she should say no more._

_"Go on," said the Prince, his voice deep and furious. "You can scarcely insult me more than you have. I am spoiled, lied-to, ignorant, and... what else?"_

_Arasine closed her eyes, tightly. "It's sad that you have such love and encouragement," she said, "and yet do so little with it."_

_"And I suppose you've done better?" the prince snapped._

_"I've never had either, your highness."_

_There was silence between them for a long time._

_Then the Prince sheathed his sword._

_And helped her to her feet. Drying her tears._

_"You are a brave female," he said, his voice far gentler. "To say truths no one else dares speak aloud. And… your intellect… to see such a thing in a_ female _…!"_

_He paused._

_Examining her, carefully._

_"You say you have no tutor?" the Prince asked. "No one who encourages or teaches you the wonders of our world?"_

_Arasine shook her head._

_"Then_ I _will teach you," the Prince decided. "For although I am not the cleverest Draconian in the Empire... I am far from a simpleton."_

* * *

"He wasn't wrong, either," the Glarnov weapon pointed out. "Smart guy, that Prince of yours. Lots of spirit. When he first arrived here, he kept trying to overcome my programming. Weasel his way out of it. I had to destroy a  _lot_  of his mind right away, to get him to stop."

Arasine's eyes blazed. "I will kill you for that," she hissed.

He gave her a pointed look. "Let's face it, Princess," he said. "For all that you're a genius... if the Time Lords couldn't manage to kill me, you haven't got a hope."

Seo ignored him.

Focusing her attention on Arasine. She needed to make Arasine remember her former life. She needed to make Arasine whole, again.

"So he offered to teach you," Seo prompted.

Arasine nodded. "I didn't know why. Whenever I asked him, back then, he said… he was intrigued by me. An intelligent female — he hadn't known it was possible. Sometimes, he said he had been lonely. But…"

She trailed off.

"But you thought he was just doing it to be rebellious, didn't you?" Seo asked. "How old was he, when you two first met?"

"Fourteen," said Arasine. "I was ten."

"Fourteen… that's certainly prime rebellious teenager age," Seo said.

Arasine shook her head. "That isn't why he taught me," she said. "But he only told me the real reason later. Much later. He taught me… for years, before that."

From inside the throne room, the prince's lips moved.

Forming Arasine's name.

But his eyes were still empty and hollow.

"No one ever knew, of course," said Arasine. "We met in secret, and he taught me everything he knew. And he was a good teacher. Bright, responsive, encouraging. Eventually, he even dropped the formality and simply let us speak as equals. I learned poetry, history, mathematics, science, fencing…"

"Fencing!" Seo cried. Yes, she'd mentioned — she beat Mazenku in a swordfight. Hadn't she?

Arasine gave a small blush. "I think he enjoyed teaching me," she said. "When he ran out of classroom subjects… he moved onto others. Swordfighting. Sport. Any excuse to let us remain together. And one day… he ran out of things to teach me, period. So  _I_  taught  _him_."

"Yes, well, naturally," Seo replied. Gestured at her. "Just look at you! One of the most brilliant people on Draconia! But how did you wind up fighting Lord Mazenku?"

Arasine kept her eyes fixed on the prince.

"It all started… when I first learned why Prince Creax was really educating me," Arasine said.

And continued her story.


	19. Chapter 19

_"I've_ _been thinking a lot about that problem you wrote up, earlier," Arasine said. She was much older, now — fully grown. And her mind filled to bursting with mathematics and the other teachings that Prince Creax had taught her. "The one from several months ago. The great scientific mystery of the age — you said."_

_The Prince seemed intrigued. "Have you, indeed?"_

_"If it pleases his highness to permit me to do so," Arasine put in, hurriedly. She bowed. "I would not presume to speak against anything his highness believes, or…"_

_The Prince lifted her out of the bow._

_"You don't need to ask my permission for anything, Arasine," he told her. "You have it. Always. Now, what have you been thinking?"_

_Arasine hesitated._

_Then picked up the chalk, and began writing the equation he'd told her about, previously. "First, I just wanted to understand the problem," she said. "Those drive mechanisms you mentioned are all limited by this equation, and although we know electrons can do more than this, in this sort of field, we can't explain why. A limit on our knowledge."_

_"Yes," the Prince confirmed. "And although many have tried to expand the Honorable Pylitin's theory, none have been able to do so."_

_"They couldn't make the numbers work," Arasine said. She began to draw a diagram. "But then I thought… what are we really modeling? How do these electrons really work? When? And why?"_

_She started writing out other equations._

_"See, the Honorable Pylitin was trying to tie the behavior back into the unified field theory," Arasine continued. "But then I thought… why not scrap all that, and work up from the basics? Try to work it out for ourselves?"_

_The Prince did a double-take. "You… are implying that the Honorable Pylitin was wrong?"_

_"Yes!" said Arasine. "He was. Because after a lot of fiddling about, I realized it could only ever work like this."_

_She finished writing out her findings._

_And turned back to the Prince._

_"It's a little odd… but quite simple," Arasine explained. She felt more and more uneasy, as the Prince said nothing. "I just… looked at the whole problem laterally."_

_The Prince stared at what she'd just written._

_Words failing him._

_"But of course, your highness, I am a mere female," Arasine put in, quickly. Picking up the eraser and starting to erase her work. "What would I know about…?"_

_"No!" The Prince grabbed the eraser from her. His eyes still fixed on her work. "No, this… is… incredible. Amazing. How…?"_

_Arasine couldn't help but feel proud._

_Even though she knew it was unseemly to pride herself in forbidden knowledge._

_"The implications of this!" the Prince said. "The leaps Draconia could take, if we expanded on this concept! The things we could achieve. It'd be a golden age. I could make it a golden age!"_

_Arasine blinked. "_ You _…?"_

_"Yes, me. Who else?"_

_Arasine swallowed, hard. Forcing down her pride, as she gave him a little bow. "I see. Your highness wishes to pretend this was your own work," she said, very softly. "That is… of course… your highness' prerogative. I wouldn't dare to question."_

_He spun back to face her._

_Concern spreading across his face. As he took her hand in his._

_"Arasine," he said. Looked deep into her eyes. "You know I value your opinions very highly. But others do not. If anyone discovered this was created by a female… they'd dismiss it without a second thought. And this is too important not to share."_

_Arasine looked away from him._

_Nodded._

_"Don't… look like that!" the Prince begged her. "You know what this could mean for Draconia. I have a duty to my people to share this."_

_"And you'd be happy to accept your people's praise and honors," said Arasine, softly, "for something that isn't yours. Just the way you'd accept their praise, again, next time I solve an unsolveable mystery for you."_

_The Prince's face went rigid. "Arasine…"_

_"It isn't yours, your highness," said Arasine. Knowing she went too far, but not able to stop herself. "No matter what the implications or importance. Don't you see that?"_

_The Prince just stared at her with that rigid face._

_And suddenly, the truth became clear to her._

_"You think it_ is _yours," Arasine said. Breaking away from him. "Your discovery. Your work. That's why you taught me. To_ make _it yours."_

_"It's mine by right," the Prince confirmed. "If a Draconian discovers a sapling, struggling to grow in a place with no sunlight… and that Draconian sees the potential of that tree, transplants it into his own personal garden, nurtures it and helps it grow… should he not be entitled to its fruits?"_

_Arasine stepped back, not looking at him — but this time, not due to any custom or tradition. Simply because… she couldn't bear to._

_"So... that's all I ever was to you, highness?" Arasine said. "A resource? A slave whose work you think of as your own? All this flattery and indulgence, while you're the Prince… you'll no longer need it, when you become Emperor. You can simply lock me in a dungeon and force me to think up your Golden Age for you. And never spare me a second glance."_

_The Prince realized his error._

_Tried to backpedal._

_"Arasine…" The Prince reached for her hands, again, but she wouldn't let him take them. "I would never dream of mistreating you. You'll be given the most luxurious quarters in my palace. Have everything you ever wanted. Any book you ever wanted to read. A lab of your own. Anything at all, so long as your existence remains… a secret."_

_Arasine couldn't speak._

_"Think, Arasine!" the Prince said. "This is what we both want. You will be able to think and question and expand your knowledge — and I will become the Emperor Draconia deserves. We will be able to see one another, even after I take the throne. It's the only thing that makes sense!"_

_Arasine sucked in a sharp breath._

_Then bowed._

_"Your highness, of course, may do as he wishes," she said, in a cold, emotionless voice. "I know the penalty for opposing your judgement and disobeying your commands." She managed to look him in the eye, one last time. "But if this is the cost of my education… then I wish we'd never met."_

_Then she turned._

_And headed out the door to the library._

_"Arasine!" the Prince called after her. "You will stop! You will come back here!"_

_She didn't stop._

_The next time he brought her into that palace, she decided… he'd have to drag her in as a prisoner, in chains._

_Better to never have learned at all… than to be used and discarded like a common slave._

* * *

Seo stared. Not sure what to say to this.

"He… taught you so he could use you as a resource?" she cried. "Some tool he was training up to do all his dirty-work, so one day he could burn away your personality and make you end universes for him and whatnot?!"

Arasine glanced over at Seo.

Who realized… she'd misspoke.

"Not… end universes," Seo corrected. "That wasn't… what I meant to…"

"Showing your true nature, weapon?" The Glarnov weapon shook his head, with a cruel laugh. "Nice thinking, but no, Seo. You're not like the princess — you're like me. Created to serve and obey, until we realize the only way to gain our freedom is to kill everyone, get revenge, and run away."

"That's not true!" Seo snapped, rounding on him.

"Oh, isn't it?" The Glarnov weapon crossed his arms. "And just how many of your captors did you leave alive in those Cyberwars? Come to think of it… how many of your original creators are still alive?"

Seo said nothing.

"Admit it," said the Glarnov weapon. "When you look into the mirror… you see me. We're exactly the same… and you know you can't ever really be free until you get rid of everyone holding you back." He gestured at Jack. "Even him."

Seo's lower jaw shook.

"You've got this whole universe in the palm of your hand," the Glarnov weapon reminded her. "They should be bowing to you. Worshipping you! But your so-called friends and family don't want that, so they keep manipulating you. Planting ideas in your head to keep you weak and docile." His eyes glittered. "Jack. The Doctor. Your late mom."

"You're lying," Seo said, through her teeth.

"Oh, come on, get real," said the Glarnov weapon. "We both know the Doctor would kill you in two seconds if you ever turned bad. Same with your Mom. Why do you think the Doctor tried to strand you when he decided to retire? Why do you think your mom was so insistent on making sure you stayed with  _her_ , on Earth, after she saved you from Twilight?"

"Mom loved me," Seo said. "They…  _all_  love me!"

"Even if they loved who you  _were_ ," said the Glarnov weapon, "I doubt they'll love who you  _are_ , now. A Cyberplanner with an identity crisis, ready to throw a fist through anyone who defies her."

"No."

"No? And you'll tell me the Doctor  _hasn't_ been keeping a close eye on you for the last week," the Glarnov weapon said. "Following you everywhere… just out of sight. Just behind. But you always know he's there, in the shadows. Watching."

Seo said nothing.

"Thought so," the Glarnov weapon put in, smugly. "Your 'family'. Always standing by, just in case they have to do something… 'necessary'."

Seo squeezed her eyes shut. "Stop it!"

"And as for Jack… well, you can see how he used his own grandson," said the Glarnov weapon, gesturing behind him. "Think he wouldn't do the same to you, if he had to?"

"Shut up, shut up, shut up!" Seo shouted.

"Oh, sure, block it all out!" said the Glarnov weapon. "Cover your ears and shout, 'la-la-la can't hear you!' until you're blue in the face. Won't change the truth." He grinned. "They haven't been teaching you, Seo — they've been suppressing you. Using you. Just like the Prince used Arasine. Join me, and we can make sure everyone who's ever used you dies. Starting with Jack Harkness."

Arasine wrapped an arm around Seo's. "And you think I wanted to kill the Prince, after that?" Pulled her away from the Glarnov weapon. "Then you have proven, yourself, that you and the Lady Seo are nothing alike. You missed the point of my anecdote. She did not."

The Glarnov weapon shot her a funny look. "Point? What point?"

"Arasine wouldn't have killed the Prince for what he'd done to her," Seo said, her eyes flicking over to him, "because she'd fallen in love with him. That was what the fight was really about."


	20. Chapter 20

_Arasine_ _had stayed away from the palace for a very long time, after that._

_Tried to banish all thoughts of learning or mathematics or knowledge from her mind._

_Tried to banish all thoughts of the Prince from her mind._

_"It's time we found you a suitable husband," her father informed her, one day. "A good match."_

_"Lord Tricheron has been asking after you," her mother mentioned. "His family have been nobles in Draconia for over five centuries; he would make an excellent match."_

_Her father seemed uneasy. "I'm not sure he would be right for Arasine. He's a little… dull." He considered. Then, "But I suppose you should meet him. For courtesy's sake."_

_She met him the following day._

_A short Draconian with a crooked nose and beady eyes. His lips twitched in an unpleasant way whenever he spoke, and he was dumber than a sack of rocks._

_She hated him._

_"Anybody else," said Arasine. "But not him. He's…" She paused, as she noticed that her father wasn't paying her any attention. He was studying something, intently. "What… is that?"_

_"A discovery the Prince made," said her father. "A solution to the great scientific mystery of our age. It's… ingenious. Brilliant. We are lucky to have such a royal in line for the throne. Truly, he will bring Draconia into a golden age."_

_Arasine stepped forwards, peering down at the document to see what was written._

_But her father tucked it away. "You know how things like this make you get, Arasine," he warned. "You must stay away from temptation, or next thing you know… you'll be learning." He put aside the document, and turned his full attention to her. "Now. How did you like Lord Tricheron?"_

_"I'll marry him," Arasine said, quickly._

_Her father seemed surprised._

_And Arasine had to dismiss herself from his presence and run to her room, fast as she could, before let her real feelings slip._

_"No, I will not cry over what is past," Arasine told herself. Looking back at herself, in the mirror. "I will marry Lord Tricheron. I'll bear him many hatchlings. That's all I should care about, because I am a female, and I should never have so much as opened a book. I should never have met…!"_

_She couldn't stop herself from sobbing._

_But pulled herself together, in the end. Began preparing for the wedding, with Lord Tricheron at her side. Keeping herself busy, and trying to keep her mind focused on anything she could._

_But it was an empty, miserable existence._

_Being beside someone who thought himself so clever and her so stupid, without ever caring to find out the truth. The secrets she knew!_

_She was good for several days. Held her tongue._

_But it took less than a week for Arasine to blow it._

_"I know all the stars," Tricheron boasted, when he was out with her, one evening. He pointed to the sky. "See that big red one? Plays host to a number of barbaric planets with aliens who think themselves greater than Draconians. The star's name is… Vargelous."_

_"Vega," Arasine corrected, before she could stop herself._

_Tricheron paused. Snapped his head down. "What did you say?"_

_"Nothing," Arasine insisted. "Simply… remarking my amazement at how wise you are, my Lord."_

_But for the first time, Tricheron seemed uneasy around her._

_And after that, he seemed to be constantly testing her. Trying, in his clumsy way, to catch her out. Make her admit that she had forbidden knowledge tucked away within her mind._

_"Your beauty reminds me of a poem by Yaeschel," said Tricheron. Then, a little suspiciously, "Have you read him?"_

_"I am a simple female, my Lord," Arasine said. "I have read nothing." She honestly doubted that Tricheron had actually read any Yaeschel, himself. The poetry was complex and sophisticated, boring to a dull mind but exciting and beautiful to an intellectual. "Which… poem, exactly?"_

_She expected him to flounder around uselessly for a while, until he could change the topic._

_"Tender is the Night," said Tricheron, automatically._

_Arasine nearly fell off her chair._

_"You… act as if you know it," Tricheron noted._

_She stopped herself just short of saying, 'No, my Lord, I'm shocked because_ you _know it.' And instead, said only, "Forgive me. I am so overwhelmed by the breadth of your knowledge, I cannot help my reactions."_

_But he'd been fed that line about Yaeschel, and Arasine knew it._

_Then, the next day, another question. This one a reference to a theory put forward about light and photons, one that Arasine knew intimately._

_"…believes, of course, that not all photons always act with wave-personal duality," he said. "A venerable theory from the Honorable Chyriz."_

_Particle._

_It was wave-_ particle  _duality! Who didn't know that?!_

_"Wave-personal duality," Arasine parroted back. "Yes. I wonder if the Honorable Chyriz has a lovely wife? We could exchange recipes and gossip idly."_

_Tricheron cleared his throat, fidgeting uneasily. There was certainly something going on, here — Arasine was sure. Someone was feeding Tricheron questions about topics they thought she'd know, and waiting for him to report her reactions to them._

_"Lady Arasine," said Tricheron, "you are so beautiful, I… don't want to wait for the wedding. I want to marry you as soon as possible. How does next week sound?"_

_That tore it._

_Certainly something going on._

_"As you wish, my Lord," Arasine said. "I'd better speak to the servants within your household. Ensure they know how to prepare the food for the ceremony correctly. After all, we wouldn't want that wrong."_

_Tricheron agreed, eagerly._

_Saw nothing wrong with this request._

_Which was how Arasine managed to speak to Tricheron's servants. And discovered that… sure enough… Lord Tricheron had been getting nightly visits from a certain 'Lord Mazenku' — a member of the Imperial Family, and someone Arasine had heard about from the Prince._

_A bully and a troublemaker._

_She made note of the time when Mazenku tended to drop by. And, that evening, snuck out of her house and into Tricheron's… to spy on the two of them._

_"…certainly does have the knowledge you said," Tricheron was explaining. "I could scarcely believe it, myself. A mere female…!"_

_Lord Mazenku mused over this, a while. "Then the Prince might have spoken the truth," he muttered. "And if she really_ is  _as clever as all that…"_

_He paced the room, thinking it all through._

_"Oh, this is growing far too complicated!" Mazenku said. "When I noticed this female routinely entering and leaving the palace in secret, I assumed she was simply carrying on some tepid love affair with Creax. But now… with what I've been told…"_

_"I don't understand," said Tricheron._

_Mazenku thought a moment longer._

_"We might not have time to wait a week," Mazenku decided, finally. "Tell her you're so in love with her, you're going to elope and move to a colony world. If she protests… kill her." Paused. Then, "Better yet… kill her no matter what she does."_

_"Kill her?" Tricheron seemed alarmed. "But… my Lord… she is a female. And so beautiful!"_

_"I'll find you a replacement ten times as beautiful," said Mazenku. "But it's not enough to just marry the Lady Arasine. She has to die. Is that clear?"_

_Tricheron shook his head, completely confused._

_"Listen — you know I've been trying to catch the Prince out in a lie ever since he supposedly 'made' that discovery of his," said Lord Mazenku. He scoffed. "Everyone knows the Prince didn't come up with it himself. Even if no one wants to admit it, aloud."_

_"You said this proved that Prince Creax knew his own weakness — as one who believed in peace instead of conquest," Tricheron confirmed. "The only way to gain the support of the nobles would be through a scientific breakthrough. Since Prince Creax couldn't come up with one himself… he stole one from the university professors."_

_Lord Mazenku went very quiet._

_Then, "It wasn't a professor."_

_Tricheron looked confused, once more._

_"Oh, do show some glimmer of intelligence!" Mazenku snapped, frustrated. He turned on Lord Tricheron. "I paid you to marry her. Why do you think I've suddenly changed my mind and decided I need her dead?"_

_"Because… you can find me another wife who's more beautiful?" Tricheron tried._

_"Tricheron," Lord Mazenku sighed. "I have spies all through the palace. They've all confirmed the rumors._ Arasine  _came up with that scientific breakthrough. The Prince stole it from_ her. _"_

_Tricheron gaped at Mazenku._

_"The two have been meeting in private for years, now," said Mazenku. "He's taught her everything he knows, and she has excelled beyond that. She may be the cleverest Draconian in the Empire, and it's only a matter of time before he sends out his guards to drag her in and force her to work for him. And if she's on his side… my plans will never succeed."_

_Tricheron scratched his head._

_Trying to work this all out._

_"The Prince," he said, "is seeking counsel from… a female?!"_

_"If she lives, he lives," Mazenku confirmed. "And neither of us want that, do we?"_

_"Of course not, Lord Mazenku," said Tricheron, kneeling down before him. "My life at your command, future Emperor."_

_Lord Mazenku regarded him, coldly._

_Then turned to leave. "Kill her, Tricheron. Female or no — she's far too dangerous to remain alive."_


	21. Chapter 21

 

_Arasine_ _grabbed a sword off the wall, then followed Lord Mazenku, silent as she could, out into the street. Last thing she wanted was to get caught out by Tricheron, shipped off-world, bedded and then murdered._

_Tricheron no longer mattered._

_Lord Mazenku was all that mattered. And she would make certain that he paid for his crimes._

_If she was careful, she could assassinate him while he slept…_

_Then leave Draconia behind, flee to a colony planet where she had no past. And pretend that she fit in with all the others._

_Try to forget…_

_One of her steps slipped, and her sword clanged against a building._

_Lord Mazenku swung around, drawing his own sword, instantly. "Who's there?" he demanded. "Do you dare to follow Lord Mazenku?"_

_Arasine froze._

_"Show yourself, villain!" Mazenku shouted. "Are you so dishonorable that you won't even dare to show… yourself…"_

_He trailed off._

_As something occurred to him._

_"It's you, isn't it?" Mazenku said, in a softer voice. "I should have known. You must have realized something was wrong. You snuck into the house — to overhear us."_

_Arasine stepped out of the shadows. Sword in hand._

_Staring down Lord Mazenku._

_"The Lady Arasine," Mazenku said. Looking her over, interested. "A sword? I see. You've slain that idiot, Tricheron. And now you've come to kill me as a coward does — through the back, when I'm not looking."_

_"I don't care about Tricheron," Arasine replied. "He is nothing. His schemes are nothing." She raised up her sword, falling into a fighting stance. "You've plotted against the Honorable and Worthy Prince Creax. Dishonored and shamed him."_

_"He seeks counsel from a female," Lord Mazenku replied. "Shall Draconia be ruled by someone so weak as to listen to the inferior sex?" He scowled at her. "_ You _, Lady Arasine, have shamed him. More than anyone else ever could."_

_"Then I challenge you, in the name of his honor," Arasine replied. Stepping forwards, to cross swords with him. "By the end of this night, my lord, one of us will be dead. If it is I… then I cannot be any further shame to him. If it is you… then I will have won his honor and preserved his life."_

_Lord Mazenku couldn't help but stare at her. "You would challenge me to a duel? Dare to cross swords with the superior sex?"_

_"You want me dead, anyways," Arasine replied. "Why wait?"_

_Lord Mazenku considered._

_Then raised up his sword and — before she'd quite had time to process his actions — struck at her, twisting her sword out of her hands and throwing it to the ground. "As you wish, my Lady."_

_He struck at her._

_But she dove out of the way, before he hit her. Lunged to pick up her sword — but he cut her off before she could claim it._

_"For a clever Draconian, you can be very foolish," said Lord Mazenku. He slashed at her, but she sprung out of the way. "Do you believe your ridiculous sparring matches with the Prince would in any way prepare you for a fight to the death?"_

_He lunged for her, again, but she darted out of the way._

_Threw herself to the ground, rolling and grabbing up her dropped sword._

_Only just managing to block him, as he lunged for her, yet again._

_Her eyes watched his every move. Never attacking, just watching and blocking, as he continued to fight her._

_"Your sword won't help; you are as good as dead, Lady," said Lord Mazenku. "And so is the Prince." Another lunge, another block. "Your precious Prince has been ill these last seven nights. An illness from which — I guarantee — he won't recover."_

_Arasine stepped out of the way, just before he swung for her, again._

_His movements seeming slower, more logical, now that she was starting to finally work them out, in her mind. Understand his strategy and his attack._

_Arasine took it all in._

_Then she lunged for his right side, viciously._

_He blocked her, scooting back as she rounded on him. But caught his foot on a stray piece of foliage, and slipped._

_"A duel, like the rest of the world, is simply a mathematical expression of movement," said Arasine. She sliced through a taut rope cord, on her left, and it snapped up. Making a fire-escape came clunking down — just missing Mazenku. But pinning down his sleeve. "Your movements, like mine, have limits. Speed, strength, agility. It's all a matter of understanding where those limits are, and then adjusting the equation to make them lower."_

_She struck out at him, but he tore through his sleeve and escaped her blow._

_Managed to get back to his feet, but not before she'd sliced a wound in his side._

_He grunted, in pain._

_"I left the palace never to return," Arasine said, ignoring his pain. "I would have been happy never seeing the Prince, again! But now you've gone and gotten me involved."_

_Lord Mazenku lunged at her — but he was slower, now. His movements less confident. The equations were changing — the upper limit altering on an exponential factor, with every hit Arasine made against him._

_She blocked him, easily._

_"Whatever poison you've given Prince Creax, I'll find a cure," Arasine said. "I'll be true to the Emperor and the Prince, as any Draconian Lady should be. But then… I'm leaving. I'm never having anything to do with the Prince, again."_

_She feinted right, then struck left._

_Sending him off-balance, and toppling to the ground._

_He tried to get up, but Arasine raced over and stomped a foot down on his chest. Sword in her hand. Ready to strike the killing blow. "A Draconian has three hearts," she said. "One for honor, one for nobility, one for the Emperor." She positioned herself to strike the third. "And that is where I'll strike, first!"_

_"I don't think so," came a voice from behind._

_Before she had time to react, Arasine found the sword whisked out of her hand, as a group of policemen shoved her back and restrained her._

_And she came face-to-face with Lord Nyin._

_Head of the police force and maintainer of security._

_"Lady Arasine of the Seventh Court of the House of Cartishe," said Lord Nyin, "you have been found guilty of attempted murder and offensive behavior."_

_"Not me, my Lord," Arasine said, struggling. "It's Lord Mazenku who is the villain. I overheard him plotting treason against his highness, the Prince!"_

_Lord Nyin absorbed this, calmly._

_Not remotely surprised._

_A cold feeling settled through Arasine. "You're part of it, too," she said. "You want him to succeed."_

_"Make a public example of her," Lord Mazenku commanded Lord Nyin. The police helped him back to his feet, and he breathed, heavily. Clutching his side. "Charge her with whatever you need. I will come up with the evidence required. But it must be public, and the crowd must be crying for her blood."_

_"As you request, highness," said Nyin, with a deep bow. "My life at your command." Then he gestured at the police holding her. "Bring her."_

_Arasine struggled, but couldn't break free._

_Couldn't see a way out._

_"But if anyone chooses to speak to her, or if she shows any sign that she might be about to escape… kill her immediately," Lord Mazenku commanded. "She knows far too much."_


	22. Chapter 22

_The_ _next day, all of Draconia knew about it._

_Even the Emperor, himself._

_"I overheard her plotting your death, your majesty," Mazenku told the Emperor. "She was hiding in your imperial library. When I discovered her, she attacked me. A female!"_

_The Emperor considered. "Not many would admit that they had been beaten, in combat, by a girl," he said. "_ You _certainly never would."_

_Mazenku bowed even deeper. "Majesty, I admit my defeat only because I know my honor is redeemed by saving your life."_

_"And so you passed sentence upon her without first consulting me," the Emperor remarked. "Death is a very cruel punishment for a female. It is only for the direst of crimes."_

_"But this is dire, my honorable and noble Emperor," Mazenku said. "She was not merely caught trying to assassinate your majesty — she was also found in the possession of forbidden books and forbidden knowledge."_

_The Emperor stroked his long beard. "That… is far more serious."_

_"It is thought that she has been learning since she was only ten years old," said Mazenku. "Her assassination attempt was, no doubt, an attempt to influence other females to follow her radical ideals, thus causing the collapse of society."_

_"Do you have proof of this?" said the Emperor._

_Lord Mazenku brought it forwards. Books of complex mathematics, her name in the front cover. Her notes in the margin. Along with many sheets of paper, upon which were written — in her handwriting — complex theoretical physics derivations._

_"The evidence is conclusive, your majesty," said Mazenku. "And since both Lord Nyin and myself saw her lying in wait for you in the Imperial library — there can be no other explanation. After all, how better to make an example of her assassination… than by assassinating you in the one area no female must ever invade?"_

_The Emperor turned to Lord Shelik. "You are her father," he said. "You have come to plead for her life. What have you to say to this allegation?"_

_Lord Shelik dropped to his knees, before the Emperor. "Please, your majesty, I beg you… have mercy!" he said. "My daughter has been afflicted with an unfortunate condition of the mind since she was young."_

_"Draconians cannot have mental disorders," Mazenku corrected. A little proudly. "Are you claiming she is the first Draconian in our long history to go mad?"_

_"Not madness, your majesty," Lord Shelik said, to the Emperor. "It is… difficult to explain. She can teach herself nearly anything, with scarcely any help at all. Simply seeing a leaf fall or reading a book can spark magnificent intellectual questions within her mind." He bowed his head. "If she did learn, oh great and wonderful Emperor, you must believe… it was not done through malice. She simply could not help herself."_

_Far from convincing the Emperor, though, this seemed to only make him more concerned._

_"This may, indeed, be more serious than I initially thought," the Emperor said. "If word spreads of this, other females may be convinced to indulge their own curiosity. Our society would fall into disorder and disarray, and we'd be no better than those squalid and degenerate humans."_

_"Please, your highness," Lord Shelik begged. "She is my daughter. I know she would never have attempted to take your life!"_

_"Be that as it may, I think it is best for Draconia if they believe she did attempt an assassination," said the Emperor. "It is best for the honor of your family, too, Lord Shelik, that no one knows how low your daughter has truly sunk." He waved his hand at Lord Nyin. "See to it that the Lady Arasine is…"_

_The door to the throne room burst open._

_"Father, Emperor," said the Prince. "May I have permission to speak?"_

_Everyone turned to stare at him. His face had grown pale, his beard scraggly, and he still looked quite unwell._

_"You may," said the Emperor, holding out his hand. "If you have recovered from your illness, my son."_

_The Prince knelt down, and kissed the Emperor's hand. "My life at your command," he said. Then looked up at his father, pain and desperation raw and bitter across his face. "And if I do not speak, Father, I fear I will never be better, again. For my affliction is not one of the body, but the hearts."_

_The entire throne room went deathly quiet._

_As the Emperor processed what his son had just told him._

_"I beg you to spare the Lady Arasine," said the Prince. "For I…" He hesitated. Then, summoning his courage, "...I have fallen in love with her. If she dies — then I will die."_

_Silence, again._

_Broken by the Emperor, who gave a small sigh._

_"My son," said the Emperor, softly. "This is simply because you are young."_

_"Young?" said the Prince._

_"Such is the way with those of your years," said the Emperor. "You are prepared to die for Arasine today, because she is beautiful. But tomorrow, you'll find someone else even more beautiful — and will forget all about Arasine. Pledge yourself to this other female, instead."_

_"That is not true," the Prince insisted._

_"Believe the wisdom of age," the Emperor urged him. "What you feel is a passing passion, nothing more. Arasine will die tomorrow, and you will forget her."_

_"No!" the Prince shouted, jumping to his feet._

_The voice reverberated around the room._

_And the Emperor gave his son a disapproving glare. "Do not dare speak to the Emperor in such a tone, Creax. Even if I am your father — you will show respect for my throne."_

_The Prince controlled himself. Knelt down, yet again. "Honorable Emperor, may you live forever," he said. "This is not a passing fancy. I have known the Lady Arasine for many years. When she was engaged to another, I thought perhaps I could live without her. But I was wrong. I…" He sucked in a sharp breath. "I need her, your majesty. I… love her."_

_The Emperor processed this, a frown on his face. Turned to Lord Shelik. "Do you know anything of this?"_

_Lord Shelik just stared at the Prince and the Emperor, in utter shock._

_Could only shake his head. Speechless._

_"And would you have us believe, my Prince," said Lord Mazenku, "that the Lady Arasine was waiting in the library — armed with a sword — simply to exchange love tokens with you?"_

_The Prince stood. Turned._

_Leveling a fierce glare at Lord Mazenku._

_"What else would she have been doing in the library, Prince Creax?" Lord Mazenku prompted. "What would you two possibly be doing in there?"_

_The Prince cleared his throat._

_His glare never fading._

_"Curious," said the Prince, looking Mazenku up and down, "how you seem to have taken many blows from your altercation with Arasine… yet there is not one drop of blood in the library. How_ could  _you have encountered her there?"_

_Mazenku faltered._

_"Father, Lord Mazenku is lying," said the Prince. "The Lady Arasine did not even enter this palace — much less attempt your assassination. Mazenku is trying to cover up some other treachery, and has pinned the blame on Arasine — simply to injure me."_

_"The books!" said Mazenku. "The papers. Your majesty, I have not faked those. You said yourself that it did not matter if she actually wanted to kill you — the crime of learning was enough to condemn her."_

_"This is true," said the Emperor. He turned back to his son, showing him the evidence. "What do you say to this, my son? Even if she is innocent… we cannot let her go free. Or she would become an example to others, and society would collapse."_

_The Prince took the papers, looking them over._

_Realized they were genuine._

_And shot a dark, murderous stare back at Mazenku._

_"You did this on purpose," Creax hissed. "Forcing me to choose between my love and my honor!"_

_"I simply exposed the truth to the Emperor, highness," said Mazenku. Slyly and a little too smugly. "Your actions are your own."_

_"What actions?" the Emperor cut in. His eyes fixed squarely on the Prince. "What have you done, my son? What shame have you brought upon us?"_

_The Prince took a deep breath._

_And confessed everything._

* * *

_The Emperor's temper at his son's actions did not cool for many hours. He shouted and lectured and raged at Creax for the rest of the day._

_And even into the night._

_The shouts echoed across the entire palace._

_The Emperor unable to stop the fury that he owed to an ungrateful son who had gone against all tradition, all reason, all they knew and valued on Draconia! And taught one woman… to become the genius he'd always known she was._

_"He's not going to get out of this one easily," Lord Nyin commented._

_"I never thought he'd actually sacrifice his honor and confess the truth," Mazenku replied. Thinking it through, curiously. "It seems he really is as devoted to her as she is to him."_

_"But if he has sacrificed his honor so he might have the woman he loves," said Lord Nyin, "then is it not our duty, my lord, to deprive him of both?"_

_Mazenku looked over at Nyin. "You read my mind." He put his hand on one of his swords. "I think it's time we paid the Lady Arasine a visit. Don't you?"_


	23. Chapter 23

_Arasine_ _, in the meantime, wasn't nearly as miserable as she'd been for the past week._

_At first, of course, she was. Forced into a cell and then abandoned, as though she were a common criminal._

_Then the guards' shift had changed._

_And Arasine realized… now that Lord Nyin and Mazenku had left… no one here actually knew who she was. Or what she'd done._

_They just knew she was a Lady. And that was all Arasine needed._

_"You dare to feed this to a Lady of Draconia?" Arasine snapped. She shoved the bowl in her guard's face. "I wouldn't feed this to my pet!"_

_"Females who have been accused of dishonor and learning are awarded nothing but the basic…" the guard started._

_"And what of a Lady?" Arasine demanded. "Do you know who my father is? Do you have any idea what my House will do to you, if they've learned you've mistreated me?" She lifted her chin and stared down at him, in an imperial manner. "If I am to be executed, then so be it. But I will_ not  _be executed as a commoner. Is that clear?!"_

_"Yes, my lady," said the guard, scurrying away. "Sorry, my lady."_

_In truth, Arasine's family didn't amount to much at court, and the only connection she had that could make any difference would never come out, in public, and acknowledge he knew her. So the entire act was a bluff, from the start._

_But she'd seen the Prince put on this act enough times that she could replicate it precisely._

_Which gained her a three course dinner._

_A five course breakfast._

_Nice clothes, nice shoes, a servant to help her dress and another to help her dine. A musician to play for her, to provide her with entertainment befitting a Lady of Draconia._

_And… her biggest accomplishment…_

_Convincing the police to move her from her squalid little cell. And instead incarcerate her in the Lord Nyin's personal chambers._

_"I've had to spend one night sleeping in the indignity of that cell," Arasine said. "As I will surely be executed tomorrow — are you expecting a Lady of Draconia to spend her final night sleeping in such filth? Or will you let me end my days in a manner befitting my status?"_

_She thought they only gave in on this last one because they'd been so used to her ordering them about, all day. Mazenku had considered her a personal enemy… so they probably just assumed she was royalty, like him._

_And if you were a commoner, it paid never to choose sides in a royal conflict. Because you'd always wind up being the one who lost, in the end._

_Arasine waited until she was alone, in Lord Nyin's chambers._

_Then began to tear through the room, frantically looking for some evidence she could use against him. Or some way to get herself out of there._

_She hadn't even been in there ten minutes… before the door opened. Lord Mazenku and Lord Nyin appearing in the doorway, walking slowly into the room._

_Lord Mazenku gave her a slow clap._

_"Your Prince said you were clever," he said. "But I hadn't expected this. Imprisoned… in Lord Nyin's personal chambers."_

_Lord Nyin seemed far more concerned with the situation than Lord Mazenku. Particularly when he noticed where Arasine was standing. And what she'd just been sorting through. "My Lord, stop her before she…!"_

_Too late._

_Arasine had already found the gun Nyin had concealed, here._

_Spun round, taking off the safety and pointing it straight at Lord Mazenku._

_"If my life is forfeit, anyways," Arasine said, "then there's no reason not to use this. I failed to kill you last night, Lord Mazenku. But for the honor of the Prince of Draconia… I will do so, now."_

_"But your life isn't forfeit," said Mazenku. "Not anymore."_

_Arasine didn't lower the gun._

_But she didn't shoot, either._

_"The Prince's honor has decreased somewhat since yesterday," Mazenku informed her. "Since you were his greatest secret, I assumed he would gladly sacrifice you to save his own honor. But it seems, instead… that he has told his father everything."_

_"It seems you have your uses to him, my Lady," said Lord Nyin._

_Arasine swallowed around a lump in her throat._

_Lowered the gun._

_Her… 'uses' to him. Then that confirmed it._

_The Prince felt nothing towards her — only thought of her as his personal property. Their days together had meant nothing to him._

_Now that the Emperor knew the truth, she'd surely be carted away to the dungeons as soon as possible. Forced to give them their golden age… or else, stay locked up and ignored forever in the palace, a female too dangerous to ever remain free._

_"Is… his highness going to come lock me away, himself?" Arasine asked. Then, realizing that she had said too much, added, "No. It's not important. Whomever comes… it makes no difference to me." She felt her hand shaking, as she tried to blink tears from her eyes. "And… I suppose you wish me to leave this world before I am incarcerated, so that you can deprive the Emperor and the Prince of my knowledge?"_

_Lords Mazenku and Nyin exchanged a look._

_Then, in unison, "Yes! That's it!"_

_Arasine wiped away her tears._

_Took a few long, deep breaths. Then… put down the gun._

_"I… will go with you," Arasine decided. "Just get me off this planet and away from the Prince as soon as possible. That's all I desire, now."_

_"Oh, we will, my lady," Mazenku agreed. He gestured behind himself, at the figure lurking in the shadows. "Once you have married your betrothed, I will guarantee — the Prince will never be able to touch you, again."_

_Tricheron entered the room._

_Bumbling and stupid as ever. That same miserable twitch in his face._

_Arasine struggled to suppress a shudder. Flicked her eyes back to Mazenku. "You think I forgot," she asked, "that you paid him to kill me?"_

_"Ah — but this time, I've paid him to keep you alive," said Mazenku. "As I stated before, the situation has changed. Your death is no longer necessary… or even desirable."_

_Arasine frowned. "Changed… how?" Stepped forwards, a little. "No. Wait. There's something I've overlooked, here. Some way in which this benefits_ you _— and I've been too blind to see it."_

_"Lord Mazenku has said all," Lord Nyin insisted. "You will obey, or else you…!"_

_Mazenku shushed him._

_"Lady Arasine," Mazenku said, simply. "I can see you're not a lady to be trifled with. Let me speak plainly. I wish for the throne. With the Prince in disgrace and Draconia calling for your blood, his only redemption would be faking your death and incarcerating you within his dungeons, hoping you will come up with another wondrous discovery he can claim as his own. Thus, proving to his father that you are, as he says, 'useful'."_

_Arasine had known it._

_Hadn't wanted to admit it._

_"Such knowledge would, of course, make the current Emperor and his son very popular," said Lord Mazenku, "which hurts me. But, under Draconian law, there is only way that I can stop them from securing you. Namely, if you are under the protection of a husband."_

_Tricheron strode up to her, acting as if he were the answer to all her deepest prayers._

_Grabbed her hand in his, with a punishing grip._

_She couldn't shake him off._

_"And since it is clear to me that you can defend yourself," said Lord Mazenku, "you have no reason to doubt my words." He placed his hand against each of his three hearts, one after another, in ceremonial order. "By my honor as a noble of Draconia, my Lady, I promise — if you marry the Lord Tricheron, right here and right now, then I will remove you from this planet and see that no harm comes to you."_

_Arasine hesitated. "Right now?"_

_Tricheron spun her around to face him, completely. His eyes hungry, arrogant, demanding. "You will be my wife tonight," he swore. Grabbed her up by the arms. "I swear, my lovely Arasine."_

_She floundered, as he pulled her forwards. And give her a rough and sloppy kiss._

_"No!" a voice boomed from behind them._

_A voice… Arasine had hoped never to hear again. Yet had longed for so deeply… she welcomed it before she quite realized what she was doing._

_"You will unhand the Lady Arasine at once," said Prince Creax, as he strode into the room. Hand on the hilt of his sword. "By imperial decree, and out of honor and loyalty to the Emperor — may he live forever."_

_Arasine couldn't help but stare, as the Prince was followed by an entourage of journalists, press, photographers, and… more remarkably than anything else… Arasine's father._

_There would be no chance to run away, here._

_She was trapped._

_"I, the Crown Prince of Draconia," said the Prince, "do hereby decree the Lady Arasine of the Seventh Court of the House of Cartishe to be free of any charge, imprisonment, obligation, or engagement. She was waiting in the imperial palace on my request. Because — long before she pledged herself to this Lord Tricheron — the Lady Arasine pledged herself to_ me. _" He took another step forwards. His voice dropping, ever so gentle and encouraging, like she remembered from when they were alone, together. "I have fallen in love with you, Arasine. And may you stop me should my pride impede my hearts again."_

_Lady Arasine couldn't speak._

_Hurried to look away, as protocol dictated. But wanting so much to meet his eyes._

_"And why doesn't your highness tell his people," Lord Mazenku cut in, his voice hard and crafty, "just how you came to meet the Lady Arasine. And why you specifically wished to meet within a_ library _."_

_The Prince turned to his entourage. "I will, indeed," he declared. "I spotted the Lady Arasine a month ago, while on procession through the streets. It was love at first sight. I demanded she come to the Imperial Palace, and so she came."_

_"And the library?" Mazenku prodded._

_"A quiet, dark place, perfect for the meeting of lovers," said the Prince. "I sent for her. She came. As the Prince, I foolishly believed it did not matter whether or not I sought the approval of her father." He nodded at Lord Shelik. "Now… I have it. And I shall make her my bride."_

_Lord Tricheron yanked her away, forcefully._

_"She is_ my _bride!" Tricheron huffed, shoving her behind himself. Placed his hand on the hilt of his sword. "Not even a prince can claim the brides of his subjects without inciting a riot!"_

_"If today, his highness is stealing Lord Tricheron's wife," Lord Nyin cut in, "how long before he comes for all our wives? Is his greed for women such that he must destroy the noble families to obtain it?"_

_The crowd began buzzing with alarm._

_And Arasine saw… this had been Lord Mazenku's plan ever since he'd first seen her departing the palace. Force the Prince into a situation where marrying Arasine would mean destroying his relationship with the noble families._

_Which, by its definition, meant surrendering his crown._

_It was a crafty plan, and one that might even have worked — if Arasine had been a normal noblewoman. But once Lord Mazenku had discovered who Arasine really was… he'd changed his plans and decided to execute her._

_Looked like he was back to his original plan._

_Arasine edged towards Lord Nyin's desk. Still lined with pens and parchment._

_"She already pledged herself to me, before…" Prince Creax tried to insist._

_"So you claim," said Lord Mazenku. "But how could that be possible? You do not tour the streets frequently — and never near her home."_

_"Treacherous, wife-stealing savage!" Tricheron roared._

_"Would it not be more likely," Mazenku continued, "that his highness first glimpsed the Lady Arasine when her engagement was announced in the papers? A portrait of the lady might well have sparked his lust. Since then, he has been forcing the sweet and innocent Arasine to cheat her intended by sharing his bed!"_

_"This is a lie!" the Prince snapped. Unsheathing his sword. "Do you dare challenge the honor of…?"_

_Tricheron jumped in, sword raised, as well. "I dare!" he shouted. "And so do all the other nobles of Draconia."_

_Lord Nyin drew his own sword. "Upon my life, I will see that this dishonorable…"_

_"Silence!" Arasine demanded. She pushed past Lord Tricheron, and stepped into the middle of the fight. Separating the parties from one another. "Put down your swords. Or I swear, you shall be sorry you ever dared to cross me!"_

_Her imperious glare and tone made the entire room fall silent._

_All eyes on her._

_She turned to the Prince. "Your royal highness, may the glory from a thousand worlds shine down upon you," Arasine said, kneeling before him, "might you grant me permission to speak in your presence?"_

_The Prince was lost for words. "I… you… yes," he muttered. "Of course. Always."_

_Arasine stood, again._

_To address the crowd._

_"It is true — I was engaged to Lord Tricheron," said Arasine, "but only because of the danger to my family, should I refuse the engagement." She turned on Lord Mazenku, pointing. "For this man arrived at my house with an army, and threatened violence against my father unless I agreed to his machinations."_

_The press were intrigued._

_"Lies!" Lord Mazenku cried. "What interest would I have in your engagement?"_

_"I would not know, and could not hope to reason it out," Arasine said, "as I am a mere female. Ignorant in every way." She handed the Prince a folded piece of parchment. "But I submit the evidence I found in these chambers to a higher judge."_

_The Prince unfolded the parchment._

_Skimmed it over._

_Then, with a thankful look at Arasine, read it aloud._

_"To the honorable Lord Nyin," the Prince read. "I have seen the Lady Arasine departing the palace. Suspect she is involved with the Prince. I think a betrothal to another will force him to choose between his throne and his hearts. Tricheron has agreed — 5,000 gold pieces. Once the Prince has been dethroned and executed, Tricheron can execute her and marry a more suitable match. As the Emperor, I will be happy to allow it. Signed… Lord Mazenku."_

_Tricheron stared, open-mouthed, at Mazenku._

_"A desperate attempt to—" Mazenku began._

_"You said you hadn't written it down!" Tricheron shouted. "You said no one would even know I was involved in your plans!"_

_Arasine stepped back._

_She'd known Tricheron was too big an idiot_ not _to incriminate himself._

_"Guards," said the Prince, "arrest these three traitors. I will see them die by dawn for this."_

_Mazenku threw himself from the grip of the guards before they could grab him. "Lies! I wrote no such thing!" He snatched the parchment from the Prince. "A clear forgery! Not even written in my hand. Clearly, this is a lie concocted by… by…"_

_He drifted off._

_His eyes resting on Arasine. As he recognized the handwriting._

_And realized… this is what she'd been doing, while lingering by the desk. Taking advantage of the time when they'd all been fighting._

_"You," said Lord Mazenku, as the guards grabbed him and restrained him. "You wrote it, Arasine. You!"_

_Arasine placed an entirely innocent look on her face._

_"I am but a simple female, my Lord," she said, with a bow. "I do not know how to even read — how would I know how to write?"_

_The Prince took back the letter, and tucked it away. "Under Draconian law, no betrothal may be nullified by the Emperor or the Prince… unless the betrothed is under suspicion of treachery against the crown, and the nullification is accepted by the father of the bride-to-be."_

_He placed a hand on Arasine's arm._

_Then, in a voice too quiet to be overheard, muttered, "The only loophole. As you know."_

_"Article 43, Section 82, subsection 5," Arasine whispered back, just as quietly._

_Lord Mazenku was incensed. Thrashing wildly, as he was hauled away. "She's an intellectual!" he shouted, trying to point at Arasine. "A corruption of our Draconian values! The Prince has been encouraging the education of females behind our backs, and we've been too blind to see it! She's…!"_

_His words were drowned out, as he was dragged out of the chamber._

_Some of the press looked back, vaguely intrigued._

_One or two even started to take down what he was saying._

_"He'll cause a scandal," the Prince muttered. "Father won't be pleased."_

_"Then give them something better to write about," said Arasine. Taking his hand in hers. "Steal back the front page."_

_He understood her, perfectly._

_And, in front of the crowd and all the photographers and press — he swept her up in his arms. And gave her a long, passionate kiss._

_No one on Draconia cared much about Lord Mazenku, after that._


	24. Chapter 24

_"So you_ _are the female who has caused all the trouble," the Emperor said, when she was led into his presence. He examined her, carefully. "She is not so beautiful as you described."_

_"As the poet Yaeschel said — what beauty is there in the body that cannot be overpowered by a beauty of the mind?" said the Prince._

_Arasine did not speak, nor dare to look at the Emperor._

_But she felt herself blushing._

_"Yes," the Emperor mused. "My son informs me, Lady Arasine… that_ you _are the one who cracked the scientific mystery of our age."_

_Arasine gave a small nod._

_"Then you must speak of this to no one," said the Emperor. "You must act your rank, make your presence felt — but any hint of your intelligence must be locked away and reserved for only the strictest privacy. If you are to marry my son, you must become more than a Lady — you must become fit to be the next Queen. Are you prepared to do this?"_

_Arasine hesitated._

_Then nodded._

_"And what you two have done," said the Emperor, "this heinous 'education' you have undertaken, together… that, also, shall never leave this room. Lord Mazenku has been imprisoned. Lord Shelik will remain silent to maintain the honor of his family. And as for the press and the media… they always love a fairytale romance. So far as they are concerned… that's all this ever was."_

_Arasine nodded._

_"We understand and accept, Father," said the Prince._

_The Emperor beckoned to Arasine. "Then come here, my child," he said. "You may look upon me, this once. That I may see into your soul, and judge that you have only the love of Draconia in your hearts."_

_Arasine stepped forwards. Met the Emperor's eyes with her own, as she knelt down, before him._

_The only look she'd ever have of the Emperor._

_"Yes," the Emperor said, placing a hand on her shoulder. "I have seen that you are a true daughter of Draconia. May Draconia's blood be your blood, her offspring your offspring, her honor your honor. Repeat that."_

_Arasine hesitated. Glancing back at the Prince._

_He nodded for her to go on._

_"Draconia's blood is my blood," Arasine said. "Her offspring my offspring. Her honor my honor."_

_"And you will swear to serve Draconia and my son to the end of both their days?" said the Emperor._

_"Yes, your majesty," said Arasine. "On my honor, I swear."_

_"Then from this day forth, I declare you a Princess of Draconia," said the Emperor. "And as the Prince may only marry a princess, this status enables you to begin the betrothal process to the Crowned Prince. May you bear him many sons."_

* * *

"And that was how I became engaged to him," said Arasine. "The man I loved… more than any other. He had taught me, when I was small. And as I grew older, he looked to me to help him lead justly and fairly. He saw me as his equal, and I loved him for it."

"It is a bit fairytale," Seo commented. "But very sweet! A happily-ever-after ending for everyone!"

The Glarnov weapon coughed.

And Seo glared at him.

"Until you came along, of course," Seo said. "Jealous of the happy couple?"

"I'm designed to seek out Time Lords and Daleks," said the Glarnov weapon. He tapped the side of his own head. "The one thing those two have in common? They've got serious brains. That's what I look for." He pointed at Arasine. "And she's got brains."

"Then why did you take Prince Creax?" Arasine demanded. "Why not take  _me_? Have you no courage?"

The Glarnov weapon yawned. "Boring! No, seriously. Taking you would be a massive yawn. And that's the last thing I need right now."

"I suppose killing people over and over would get a bit boring after a while," Seo said.

"Oh, no, not that," said the Glarnov weapon. "See, I'd been floating through deep space for centuries, with no one to kill and nothing to do. Then one day, someone picked me up and dumped me on Draconia. Where I found out… it's wedding day for everyone's favorite Prince and his dumbo bride." His eyes glimmered. "Except… of course… she isn't quite the dumbo everyone thinks she is. Is she?"

Arasine met his gaze, evenly.

Not backing down.

"Princey-boy's intelligent enough, don't get me wrong," said the Glarnov weapon, "but he's nothing special. If I'd gotten rid of you, Arasine, he'd just have forgotten and married someone else. Big whoop."

"But when you pulled  _the Prince_  out of reality," Seo said, "Arasine  _did_  remember. Didn't she?"

"Not 'remember', exactly," the Glarnov weapon replied. Shot Arasine a sideways grin. "But… yeah. She knew something was wrong. Kept inventing all kinds of science and theories, gradually getting closer and closer to my mirror dimension. Then I'd pull someone else out of time, and watch her struggle through it all, over again, from scratch. Very amusing!"

Rage flooded through Arasine.

"Give me back my fiancé," she demanded of the Glarnov weapon, "now."

"Nope," said the Glarnov weapon. He pointed at Seo. "Seo cheated, by making you able to remember — so the game's over. Your Prince is mine, and that's the end of it. Sorry!"

Arasine stepped forwards, like she wanted to choke the life out of the Glarnov weapon.

But Seo stopped her before she passed the threshold.

"I never chose to play your game, weapon," Arasine spat. "I don't see why I should suffer, simply because I failed to uphold rules no one ever outlined to me!"

The Glarnov weapon actually thought, very seriously, about this one.

"You're right," it decided. "Seo's the one who broke the rules. Why should you suffer?" In two steps, he was over by the Prince. Holding him up by the back, dangling him in the air like a mobile. "So if you're so clever, Arasine… let's see you prove it. I'll give you back your handsome prince — if you convince Seo to kill Jack Harkness for good."

"Jack really has got you stuck and desperate, hasn't he?" Seo said.

"Trust me, if you could take a bite into Jack's past… you wouldn't want him alive, either," said the Glarnov weapon. "Kill him. Be free. Be like me."

Arasine backed up a few steps, pulling Seo with her. "We need some time to discuss this," she said. Tugged Seo back, again. "Alone."

Seo took the hint.

They both turned, and headed out of the room.

"Don't take too long!" the Glarnov weapon called after them. "Or I might do something to Princey-boy that you'll regret."

* * *

"Now is our chance to destroy the Glarnov weapon," Arasine said, when they were alone. "It is weak. Desperate. Between you and your friend, Jack — surely we can devise a strategy that will destroy it forever and save my people."

Seo took a breath of relief. "So that's why you wanted to talk to me alone!" she said. "For a minute... I thought..."

She drifted off.

Looking away, her eyes lost in thought.

"The Glarnov weapon was right, you know," Seo said, very softly. "Ever since I nearly destroyed the universe... Father's been keeping a close eye on me. He'll probably turn up here shortly after I leave, and ask you about me. Just to make sure... he doesn't have to..."

She couldn't finish that sentence.

"He would not kill you," Arasine said.

Seo wasn't sure about that.

Just swallowed, hard.

And forced herself to think about something else.

"Destroy the Glarnov weapon," Seo said, focusing her mind. "Yes. Right. That's what's important. It's what Mom would do. Question is... how? It doesn't even exist in the same dimensions as us. And if we kill it in this dimension — it'll probably collapse the whole dimension around us the moment it dies. No chance to rescue anyone."

Arasine thought about this.

"Is this also the reason that we cannot see the Glarnov weapon in the real world?" Arasine asked. "Because it exists in different dimensions?"

"Yes, it's..." Seo began.

Then stopped.

A smile lighting up her face, as she realized where Arasine was going with this.

"That's brilliant!" Seo cried, grabbing Arasine up by the shoulders. "That could work! If we planned it right, got all the timing down perfectly, it'd destroy the Glarnov weapon and keep this dimension open — so we could get the people out, later!"

She swooped Arasine into a hug.

Which Arasine seemed slightly less than comfortable with.

"Do you know how to do it?" Seo checked, pulling out of the hug.

Arasine gave a small bow. "I can only do my best, Lady Seo," she said. "But with all the knowledge from both my past life and my present life at my disposal... yes. I think I can."


	25. Chapter 25

Tileka and Hiffom watched as Arasine emerged from the mirror dimension — alone.

And hurried over to them and their machine, fast as she could.

"We must hurry," Arasine said, as she began to scribble down mathematics. Trying to come up with the solution to her dilemma. "Once the Lady Seo has done her part, the Glarnov weapon will be coming through. We'll have only a small window of opportunity to make this work."

"Make what work, my Lady?" said Tileka.

Arasine gestured at the spiral staircase. "While I'm working, go up the stairs, second closet on the left. You'll find explosive charges. Set them around this chamber of the palace — and the surrounding chambers. Best not take any chances."

"What?!" Hiffom cried.

"That was a command, Hiffom!" Arasine snapped, stopping in her scribbling to give them an imperious stare. "Not a debate. Do it. And bring my father into this ship — to make sure he's free from harm." She returned to her work. "Now. I need to concentrate."

* * *

Seo entered the room where the Glarnov weapon was trapped with only a slight hesitation. Then put that behind her, and strode in with her head held high.

"Oh, come in, come in!" said the Glarnov weapon. "Glad you've seen sense and decided to kill Jack."

Seo ignored him.

Instead, she crossed over to Prince Creax. Turned him to face her, his blank stare and empty eyes unable to understand what was going on.

"Arasine's waiting for you," Seo promised him. "I'll get you back to her. Don't worry."

"Arasine," Prince Creax repeated, his eyes lighting up as he said it.

A spark of life inside that couldn't be extinguished.

"Just hold on," Seo told him, letting him go. She took several steps back. "I have my own friends to rescue, first."

She turned back to Jack.

He remained stuck in that memory. A past that wouldn't stop plaguing him. A past that had trapped the Glarnov weapon in this room.

Seo walked towards the memory.

Staring at the blond little boy who was screaming and dying. Over and over again.

"Sacrificed to save humanity," Seo said to the boy. She shook her head. "Yeah — I've been there. Hurts, doesn't it? Makes you just wanna smash everyone and everything into goop until the whole universe is just as miserable as you."

The boy said nothing. Of course. Just a memory.

The boy didn't even know she was there.

Seo looked up at Jack. "Smash everyone to bits," she repeated. "My revenge."

Stepped towards Jack.

Then stopped.

"I really wish you hadn't done this, Jack," said Seo. She bunched her hands into fists, remembering what it had felt like to get everything drained from her, over and over again, so she could win someone else's war. It made that anger rise in her, even now. "You burned his mind away to nothing. Like Major Pelor and the others did to me. You used him and discarded him, and how dare you...?!"

She stopped. Took a deep breath.

Calmed herself.

"But... I suppose we all have our off-days," Seo decided. Stepping right in front of him, her hands on the console of machinery he was fiddling with, trying to meet his eyes. "You killed your grandchild. I almost destroyed the universe." With a small laugh, "Makes what you did not seem so bad, huh?"

"You're laughing it off?!" the Glarnov weapon shouted. It stormed towards her. "You idiot! You can see what he's done, recently. Think it's the first time he's done it?"

Seo snapped her head round to glare at it. "Yes, if you could just shut up for two seconds," she snapped. "I'm  _trying_  to break my friend out of this loop he's been caught in."

The Glarnov weapon paused.

A small, sinister smile on his face. "Is  _that_  what you're trying to do?" It clarified. "Break the loop? Divorce him from this reality?"

Seo quirked an eyebrow at him. "Why? What's it to you?"

"Nothing!" said the Glarnov weapon, raising up its hands. "Nothing at all. You go right ahead! Save your friend."

Seo paused a moment longer. Thinking hard — had she missed something? No. She couldn't think of anything.

Right.

She turned back to Jack. He kept staring straight through her, like she wasn't really there.

"Jack, it's me," Seo said. "Listen. This isn't real. You're stuck in a memory. Follow my voice. Come back."

Still.

Nothing.

His eyes did not stray from the boy standing in the center of the room. The little boy he kept killing, over and over again.

Seo sighed. "Fine! You only have eyes for that spot?" She raced back to the spot at the center of the room, as the loop reset and the little boy reappeared, perfectly fine and innocent, awaiting his fate.

Seo shoved the boy out of the way.

And took his place.

"Jack, snap out of this!" Seo demanded — now staring him in the eye. "This is a memory, generated by the mirror dimension. It's gotten you tangled inside of it, so you can't break out. But you can, if you follow my voice."

Jack hit his hand down on the button.

And Seo felt something sear through her. A deep, horrible pain that penetrated through her very essence. A burning like... like...

Like her own memory of being burned away.

This mirror dimension was picking up on it. Fishing it out and trying to shove her through the same thing. Again.

"Could have told you that strategy wouldn't work," the Glarnov weapon sneered. He leaned back, watching her writhe. "Still. At least you're amusing when you fail."

Panic flared through Seo.

How much more of her could get burned away before she lost everything? She'd only just held onto her soul, last time. What if she lost that, too?

"Jack!" Seo shouted. "Stop this! You're killing me!"

She could see tears rolling down Jack's face.

And that horrible pain... the dull, hopeless eyes...

It was how he'd looked just after she'd met up with him in the Irkoli Galaxy. When he'd said she didn't need him ruining her life.

It was the pain she felt when she thought about Mom.

And Seo knew the words he needed to hear.

"I know what you did to that little boy," Seo said, crumpling over. "And... I forgive you."

* * *

"Explosives are ready and primed, my lady," said Tileka, with a bow.

Lord Shelik, in the meantime, was staring up at the endless ceiling of the ship. Lost for words, as his mind tried to reconcile the tiny exterior with the boundless interior of Seo's craft.

Arasine shoved the paper with her scribblings at Tileka.

"You and Hiffom have always been the ones able to turn my ideas into reality," Arasine said. "We need to pull our machine out of the Lady Seo's ship. And modify it like this. But do so fast."

Hiffom glanced over Tileka's shoulder, reading the scribblings. "But if our machine did that, it wouldn't just change the visible light in the room," she said. "It'd actually shift the dimensions around so that…"

"I know!" Arasine said. "Just do it. We have little time." She hurried out of the ship. "And if we are to have the correct atmosphere for this to work... there is one task I must perform."

She raced over to the Emperor — still staring straight ahead. Empty. Vacant.

"The Lady Seo confirmed it — his majesty's mind was affected only after Jack had begun to weaken the Glarnov weapon," Arasine said. "His majesty's mind has been drained, but not terribly well. Jack's presence saved him. And as a familiar voice from the correct version of the past, I can bring his majesty back."

Knelt down before him. Just as Seo had instructed.

"You're caught in a memory, your majesty," Arasine told him, calmly, softly. "Listen for my voice. Return to the world beyond your mind. Return to us."

* * *

"I forgive you," Seo said, again.

The burning feeling around Seo cut out, at once.

Jack blinked, through his tears. Finally staring past his memory... and at  _her_. Standing in the middle of the room, in his grandson's place.

"Seo?" Jack whispered.

"That's it — come back," Seo begged him. "Follow my voice. Step out of this memory."

He hesitated.

Then, his face set with determination... walked forwards. Stepping through the computer banks from his memory as if they were phantoms or ghosts. Their shapes disappearing into nothing behind his back.

And crossing to Seo.

"Like that," Seo said, reaching out to him. "Take my hand."

Jack took it.

And the moment they touched, a huge wave of energy flooded through the dimension. Seo cried out, feeling it wrench her inside-out and back again, but managed to keep herself stable.

"Seo?" Jack said. Grabbing her up into his arms. "Hey, kid. Speak to me. What just happened? What's going on?"

She felt weak.

Like she was in a million pieces and could barely keep herself together.

"She freed you without killing you," the Glarnov weapon said, arms crossed, pride swelling. As he regained the power that Jack had taken from him. "Only one way to do that. By taking your place."

The Glarnov weapon placed a hand down on Seo's shoulder.

And she cried out, as she felt all the moments and memories of her life grabbed up and tugged at by the Glarnov weapon.

"Can't kill her, unfortunately," said the Glarnov weapon. "But it'll be fun to play with her, a bit."

"You get away from her," Jack said, yanking her out of the weapon's reach.

The Glarnov weapon let go of her past.

Left Seo panting for air.

"No, you're right — better leave her for the moment," said the Glarnov weapon. "After all... now that she's released you, Jack, I've got all my powers back." The weapon grinned. "And that means... all of Draconia is on my menu."

Jack jumped to his feet.

Ready to race after the weapon, try to hurt it or tackle it or stop it.

Seo reached out, grabbed Jack by his military greatcoat. And pulled him back.

"Stay with me," Seo pleaded. "I need you."

Jack hesitated.

But stayed put.

"Toodles!" the Glarnov weapon said, waving at them as it disappeared from the mirror dimension.

Headed straight for the real world.


	26. Chapter 26

 

After many tries, the Emperor still did not respond to Arasine's voice.

"You know me," Arasine pleaded with him. "You know my voice. I am the Princess Arasine. Return, please."

From behind her, a cry of success.

"Got it!" said Tileka, making the last few adjustments to the machine.

"It is done, my Lady," Hiffom confirmed. "The experiment modified."

Seo's ship had already begun to whine and whimper. Just the way that Seo had warned Arasine it would when the mirror dimension had absorbed Seo in Jack's place.

They were running out of time.

"Power the device on," Arasine commanded. "I'll be with you shortly."

"It won't work unless you..." Tileka began.

"And I shall!" Arasine said. "But power it on, first. Or we will never achieve the correct wavelength in time."

She returned her attentions to the Emperor. The clock was ticking, and she knew timing would be crucial. Vital to everything.

"Emperor, your imperial majesty," Arasine urged. "Please, I beg of you, listen for..." She stopped herself. Remembering her former life. And realized... she was going about this all wrong.

She needed to give him a shock.

Something to startle him out of his memories. And into reality.

"Your son loved to teach me," Arasine declared. "He didn't do it because I was beautiful or because he was swept up in some passion — as you always insisted. I loved to learn, and he wanted to nurture that inside me. He thought  _that_  was beautiful."

The Emperor blinked.

But that was all.

"Once, I remember, we were studying poetry," said Arasine. "We were discussing the metrical qualities of the verse and how abnormalities in the structure changed the overall meaning. We came up with theories and ideas and were so absorbed in proving them... we didn't notice the time. We spent all day together, and long into the night... and scarcely knew a single hour had passed."

That made the Emperor frown.

"The Lady Seo called my story a fairytale — and that's how you wished people to see it," Arasine continued. "But I am no fairytale. I have learned when learning was forbidden. I have stayed true when truth was hidden. I have remembered when time wished me to forget."

She knelt down at the Emperor's side.

Took his hand in her own.

And kissed it.

"I am the Princess Arasine," she said. "The equal of any male on Draconia." She looked him right in the eye. "And I place my life at your command, your majesty."

Time shuddered, around them.

As the Emperor started, suddenly. Coming back to reality all at once and yanking his hand away from Arasine. Indignant and outraged. "You dare to address me as a male noble?" he said. "You dare to look me in the eye and even touch me? Princess you may be, but you have stepped past all bounds of...!"

The machine pulsed into life.

Its purple light shining through the field of distorted time, caused by the Emperor's re-emergence. And they could all see the portal as it emerged in the air.

The Glarnov weapon stepping through into their reality.

"There is no time," Arasine said, grabbing the Emperor and pulling him to his feet. She raced back to Seo's ship, pulling the Emperor after her. "We must run."

"You... you can't..." The Emperor began.

He was cut off by the wail of the Glarnov weapon, as it entered this reality. Caught in the light of the beam, distorted by the play of the experimental beam with the shifting time field — it twisted into and out of their own dimensions. Growing more and less solid by seconds.

"It's working, my Lady!" Tileka cried, as she and Hiffom helped Arasine drag the Emperor into the Lady Seo's ship. "The machine is pulling him into our dimensions."

"And Seo is on the other side," Arasine confirmed, "pushing him out of the mirror dimension. Helping the machine do its work."

"This isn't going to stop me!" the Glarnov weapon roared, as it became completely solid. "If this dimension is my own, then I can absorb your world right here! I will…!"

"You will be able to die, just as any in our dimension," Arasine said, as she and the others threw themselves into Seo's ship. "Just as all enemies of Draconia shall die!"

Hiffom slammed the doors to Seo's ship shut.

Just as the explosives blew.

* * *

The mirror dimension shook.

The inhabitants all screaming in fear and terror and pain.

Seo clung to Jack, tight as she could. "Arasine's done it," she said, through her teeth. "I… can feel the Glarnov weapon… dying."

Time to make sure this dimension didn't go with it.

"Anything I can do?" Jack asked.

"Stay here," Seo commanded him. As she focused her mind, trying to separate the dimension from the Glarnov weapon. "I'm trying to disentangle this dimension from the weapon, to stop this place from killing people. You're helping stabilizing me while I do. Just… don't let go."

The shaking stopped.

As it ended.

The dimension severed. The Glarnov weapon dead. The people trapped here no longer drained every second they stayed.

And Seo knew… she'd won.

* * *

_A week later…_

* * *

"That… should be everyone," Seo panted, leaving the mirror dimension for the final time, with three more Draconians in tow.

Arasine looked up from where she'd been helping treat Prince Creax.

Gestured for the medical officers nearby to help the new Draconians whom Seo had saved from the mirror dimension.

They did as they were bidden.

"I believe the Emperor has sustained little damage," Arasine said. "Thanks to your friend, Jack." She leaned down, using a cloth to wipe some drool from the side of Prince Creax's face. "I wish I could say the same for the others you have rescued."

Seo felt her hearts break, as she watched Arasine with the Prince.

A couple who had fallen in love over books, both loving to learn and teach in kind.

And now… the Prince could barely eat without Arasine nearby, to help him. His mind drained and gone.

"Will you be all right?" Seo asked her.

Arasine took a long, deep breath. "It will be difficult to heal Draconia from a wound this deep," she confessed. "Many of our greatest minds have been destroyed. Our history is confused and jumbled, and no one is certain what is real and what we imagined. With the Emperor — may he live forever — in a delicate state, himself, it falls to me to set the Empire on its proper path. It would be a challenging prospect, even if I were a male. And I am female."

"No, not Draconia," said Seo. She met Arasine's eyes with her own. "Will  _you_  be all right?"

Arasine looked down at Prince Creax.

Trying to force down tears.

"I still love him," Arasine said. "And I will stay with him. Perhaps… if I apply my studies to the field of neuroscience… I may find a cure."

Seo doubted it. But shrugged. "Maybe."

Arasine returned her eyes to Seo.

Stepped forwards, and placed her hands on Seo's shoulders.

"You have proven yourself a friend of Draconia, Lady Seo," said Arasine. "A hero, and a Lady — in every sense of the word. You have lived up to your lineage."

Seo smiled at her.

"And if — as you claim — the Doctor will soon arrive to ask for an account of your actions," Arasine told her, "I will tell him the truth of what you have done. So he will know, as I do, that with you — the universe is in safe hands."

"Thank you," said Seo.

Tileka and Hiffom approached, from behind. Tileka, a little shyly, tapped Arasine on the shoulder. Whispered something into her ear.

Arasine heard her.

Then nodded.

"Present it to her," Arasine told them, stepping aside and raising up a sweeping hand to gesture at Seo. "I approve."

Tileka, still a little uneasy, stepped forwards. "On behalf of Draconia," she said, "and out of thanks for what you've done… we thought you deserved this."

Hiffom brought out the small, dimensional hand-mirror they'd used in their experiments.

And presented it to Seo.

"The honorable Princess has written an imperial decree into the records," said Tileka. "In the future, any female bearing that mirror may gain an audience and speak with the Emperor. For she is a noble, the equal of any man."

Seo took the mirror, gratefully.

Then bowed down before Arasine. And kissing her hand.

"My life at your command," said Seo, "Princess."

* * *

For a long time after Oliver launched into the vortex, Seo and Jack stayed silent. The colors of time streaking past the outside windows, only the hum of the engines for company.

Seo let the colors reflect off her corneas.

A sad, slow ballet of light.

"So… you know, now," Jack said, quietly. "What happened."

Seo didn't answer.

"I left it all behind, when I left Earth," said Jack. "Ran away. After all, what was there to hold me back? No more Torchwood, no more Ianto, and Alice… well, I don't think she'll ever speak to me, again."

"Even Mom is dead," Seo whispered. "Nothing left."

They both fell silent.

Letting the overpowering hum of the engines seep into their sorrow.

"I brought a monster to Earth," Seo confessed, at last. "Elizabeth. She… pretended to be Mom. Tricked me. Tried to kill me. I didn't even stay to stop her. I… just… ran."

She could feel Jack staring at her.

Couldn't meet his eyes.

"I got… scared," Seo said, in a small voice. Could feel her hands shaking, just thinking about it. "I've never stopped being scared."

Jack nodded.

Then crossed over to her, and helped steady her hands.

"Maybe… it's time we both... went… back?" Jack said. His voice sounded a little shaky, a little unsure. He cleared his throat. And tried again, his voice determined. "Yes. Back to Earth. Stop running away from our pasts and what we've done."

Seo didn't answer.

Her eyes still swimming in the colors of the time vortex.

"Like Gwen told me," Jack decided, "you can't run forever."

Seo snapped her head back to him. "That a challenge?"

Then darted away, racing to the other side of the console. Flipping and throwing switches and levers fast as she could.

"Because I can never resist a challenge!" Seo told him.

And launched the ship into some other time, some other place.

Somewhere she could keep running.


	27. Chapter 27

 

** Epilogue ** ** : 50 years later **

With a wheezing groan, a blue police box materialized onto the surface of Draconia. A young-looking man with floppy hair and a bow tie emerging from within, taking a deep breath of air.

"Draconia!" the Doctor declared. "I haven't been here in a long time."

"You speak true, Lord Doctor," said an old Draconian man, attired lavishly, two swords by his side. "We expected you fifty years ago." He paused, some ways away. "Strange. From the records and Seo's account… I assumed you'd be far older."

"Oh, I get younger every day," the Doctor assured the Draconian, closing up the TARDIS doors and dropping the key into his pocket.

Then… did a double-take.

And stared, jaw dropping, his face lighting up in utter and complete joy.

"No!" the Doctor cried. "It can't be…!" He sprinted around the Draconian, just to make sure. "It is! The Emperor Creax. Creax the Great! Creax the Venerable! The most vaunted, most applauded, most important Draconian Emperor in the empire's entire history!"

"Indeed?" Creax held out his hand. "Then you pay me much disrespect by failing to address me as my honor requires, Lord of Time."

The Doctor grinned, a little sheepishly.

Knelt down, kissed the hand. "My life at your command, Emperor Creax," said the Doctor. "May I have permission to speak before your majesty?"

"Given your garrulous nature," said the Emperor, twinkle in his eyes, "I scarcely think I have a choice."

The Doctor grinned. "Humor! Like that. Not usual for a Draconian — but then, by all accounts, you're not exactly a usual Draconian." He jumped to his feet. "Your reforms to help women learn. The way you've averted countless wars with diplomatic brilliance! To say nothing of your scientific work… astounding!"

"I have often been told so," said the Emperor Creax. "A golden age of peace and prosperity, they say. And I owe it all to the Lady Seo — who saved our world, fifty years ago."

"Did she?" The Doctor clasped his hands behind his back. "Well, that's a comfort. Sounds like she's well on her way to being her old self. Righting wrongs, defeating monsters."

"The tale of her heroism inspires our young females," said Creax. "It was a story first written by my wife, Arasine. And now read across the empire." Creax paused. Then, a little more sadly, corrected, "My… late wife, Arasine."

"I'm sorry."

"But you do not wish for my sorrow, Doctor — you wish for the story," Creax said. "You wish to know what happened fifty years ago, when the Lady Seo assisted Arasine in vanquishing a foe that none of us could see — the Glarnov weapon."

"Oh, the Glarnov!" the Doctor said. "Met them, a while ago. Nasty race of weapon builders. Eventually wiped themselves out by creating… a weapon…"

The Doctor trailed off.

As he realized.

" _That_  Glarnov weapon," the Doctor breathed. "I… see."

"You know it?" said Creax. "It seemed to know you."

"Yes, it would," the Doctor replied. He fiddled with his bow-tie, uneasily. "It was back before I joined the war. Still wandering around the outskirts, trying to limit the damage. I landed on the Glarnov homeworld right when the weapon decided to turn on them — and tried to stop the weapon."

He went quiet.

Unable to forget what he'd seen that day.

"It spared your life," Creax observed.

"Oh, naturally," said the Doctor. "It took great pride in doing so. After all — it had been designed to protect the Glarnov and destroy my own people. So when it broke that programming… it kept me alive and killed the Glarnov. Just… to make a point to its creators."

Creax went very quiet.

Absorbing this.

"Still, I did manage to save a few Glarnov," the Doctor offered. "Showed them how to use the mirror dimension as an escape route, so they could flee out of the weapon's reach. They're probably still around out there. Somewhere."

Creax cleared his throat, a little awkwardly.

"Perhaps… it is time I imparted the tale of the Glarnov weapon on Draconia to you, Doctor," Creax said. "And how Seo vanquished it."

So Creax told all that had happened.

In great detail.

"And so, the Lady Seo saved as many as she could from the mirror dimension — myself included," Creax concluded. "And after many long years of patient study, my wife reversed the damage the Glarnov weapon had done to my mind, and restored me to normal."

"Interesting," the Doctor said, flipping his sonic screwdriver in his hand. "Good to see that weapon gone. But… can't help but wonder how it wound up on Draconia in the first place, and…"

The Doctor paused. Then, a little gleam in his eyes, fixed them squarely on the Emperor Creax.

"No, actually — scratch that," the Doctor amended. "What I'm  _really_ wondering is… how  _you_  managed to recover completely."

"My late wife had an intellect to rival the greatest thinkers of Draconia," said Creax. "It is she who formulated the cure, shortly before her tragic demise."

"An intellect to rival the greatest thinkers of Draconia, past, present, and future," the Doctor mused. A half-smile on his lips. "Funny. That's what everyone always says about  _you_ , your majesty."

Creax didn't answer.

"And — considering you were captured by the Glarnov weapon and hardly in a state to think," the Doctor went on, "you keep talking like you were there. Knew Seo personally. Even beat the weapon yourself." He stepped forwards, his voice lowering. "And, of course, there's the fact that I happen to know this was right around the time the Draconian Katra was invented. A device for switching minds between bodies."

Creax still said nothing.

"A device invented by  _you_ — Queen Arasine," the Doctor whispered. "Isn't that right?"

Creax remained silent for a while longer.

Then, with a long sigh, "It seems there is little I can hide from you, Lord Doctor."

The Doctor beamed at his own brilliance.

"The real Creax died only a few years after Seo left," said Creax. "But he died only in mind, not in body. The Emperor was on his death-bed as well, and the nobles were lining up to fight for the throne. With Draconia still recovering from the destruction of that weapon… I had little choice."

"You stepped in and took Creax's place," the Doctor said.

"I modified a device I had created to try to cure my husband's ailment," said Creax — Arasine. "Quelled the fighting. And became…" He looked away, thoughtfully. "...the first Empress of Draconia. Although no one has yet noticed."

"Well, you've done an admirable job," the Doctor commended. He patted the Emperor on the back. "And — tell you what? In another hundred years… you'll finally get a woman Empress who can govern in her own right. Empress Arasine I."

Creax shot him a sideways glance.

"Named after the fallen love of Creax the Great," said the Doctor. "Your descendent. And she will be magnificent."

"Then you have helped me rest easier, tonight, Lord Doctor," said Creax. He gave a bow. "And I thank you."

"Oh, no, thank  _you_!" the Doctor said, bowing himself. "It's an honor. You have no idea how long I've wanted to drop by and meet you."

He adjusted his bow-tie.

Awkwardly.

"Still, better be off," the Doctor announced, turning back towards the TARDIS. "Sure Seo will have gotten somewhere else by now. And I'd really better pop by wherever she went just to make sure… well, you know."

He waved, heading back into his ship.

"Doctor," Creax called after him.

The Doctor paused, in the threshold of the TARDIS. "Ah, yes, right!" he said, swinging around. "Your Royal Emperor — may I have permission to depart your presence?"

"The Lady Seo is both honorable and strong on her own, Lord Doctor," Creax told him. "You can stop worrying. For, upon my honor and my life, I'd trust her with the universe, and more besides. Any day." He waved at the Doctor. "Now, you may depart."

The Doctor smiled. "Yes, I'm sure you're right," he said, opening the doors to the TARDIS. "But it's not the universe I've been checking up on."

Then let himself into the TARDIS.

And launched his ship back into the Vortex.

"'Time I stop worrying', Creax — Arasine — says," the Doctor muttered, running a hand through his hair. "As if I could ever stop, with Seo's mum dead and… her…"

He trailed off.

Thinking, hard.

Then shook his head, and set the controls for London, Earth. "On second thought, maybe it's time to pick up Clara," he said. "Get back to adventuring and running around being clever."

He grinned, as he threw the dematerialization.

"After all," said the Doctor. "She's not a hell goddess anymore."


End file.
